KU alumni and creators of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared return to talk to students

The creators of Don’t Hug me I’m Scared, Joseph Pelling and Rebecca Sloan, came to Kingston University to talk to illustration animation and TV production students.

The pair met at Kingston University, whilst Pelling was studying illustration animation and Sloan was studying Fine art. They went on to create their own production company that produced the web series turned Channel 4 show Don’t Hug me I’m Scared in 2014.

Rebecca said how “entering the real world was a bit daunting so we set up a studio”.

They’ve dabbled with lots of different media, such as creating window displays for Selfridges, music videos for artists such as Tame Impala and independent projects that you can find on their YouTube channel. However, their most successful project remains the horror/comedy Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared franchise that they created.

The first video they published gained 77 million views and is now a series on Channel 4. They also created a pilot which featured the made-up town called Clayhill, named after the Kingston University accommodation.

Media and Communications student Emma Taxil said how; “It was useful to see how they did it.

“They used mix media, so it is really different from usual TV shows or animation, so it is a really unique process.”

When talking about their alumnus status, illustration animation student Beau said that: “Honestly really cool to see how people got from Kingston to where they are now, it is inspiring to see all their process and gives me more hope for my future career.”