Announcing our newest investment: Atypical Artists
Today we’re thrilled to share that Podfund has made a strategic investment into Atypical Artists. Atypical will use the capital to fund original new shows from both in-house talent and their robust network of up-and-coming writers, directors, actors, composers, sound designers, and engineers. You can read more about the news in The Hollywood Reporter.
“Since I got into fiction podcasting in 2015, it’s been amazing to see how much the medium has grown and evolved. Now we’re at a special moment in fiction podcasting, when there are an abundance of creators in the medium, all with exciting and innovative ideas. These ideas — the ones that try something new, push the medium — are the shows that Atypical Artists wants to make,” explained Atypical Artists CEO, Lauren Shippen. “One of the things that excites me most about our partnership with Podfund is that they feel the same way. With their unparalleled experience in the industry and their steadfast belief in creators, Podfund is such a unique partner to have in the fiction world. They share our vision of lifting up unique and vital voices and we’re so lucky to get to work in tandem with them to bring to life the shows that we’re passionate about.”
The investment in Atypical Artists signals a deeper move into the world of audio fiction for Podfund, and our continued commitment to enabling independent creators.
We’ve long been admirers of Atypical, impressed from afar by their creative integrity and ambition. We started talking with Lauren and the team last fall and once we got to know each other, were even more eager to find a way to work together. Not only do they create rich, powerful stories, but they are incredible role models and advocates for the independent podcast community. We couldn’t be happier to be officially in their corner.
Two of the shows on Atypical’s slate include Life with Leo(h) from writer Octavia Bray (The AM Archives, Raven’s Home) and the previously announced In Strange Woods.
“Life with Leo(h) is a sci-fish(ish) romantic comedy about an emotionally repressed lawyer and the illegal android who loves her. I pitched it to Lauren and the Atypical Artists team in 2019 (after working for Lauren on The AM Archives), and I brought up two things that were important to me. First, I wanted to work with as many POC as possible and second, I wanted to work with good people,” explained Bray. “Inclusivity is a central tenet of my own creative work, and life is too short to wake up one day and hear someone cast in my passion project kicks puppies and marches with a tiki torch in his spare time. The biggest thing I remember from that pitch meeting wasn’t that they liked the project, it was that we were completely in sync on those issues. From that moment, my experience with Atypical Artists has been nothing short of excellent. They are truly enthusiastic about the stories they tell and the creators with whom they partner.”
In November, Atypical announced they would be partnering with Brett Ryback, Matt Sav and Jeff Luppino-Esposito on podcast musical In Strange Woods. Said Ryback, “When we approached Atypical with our idea for a fictional ‘true crime’ musical, there was nothing in the podcast space quite like it. In fact, there still isn’t. And while lots of people thought we were doing something special, only Atypical was willing to take a risk on three musical theatre writers with a dream to tell a new story in an innovative way. We couldn’t have done it without them. At every step, they’ve matched our drive to create exciting content for new audiences hungry to hear themselves represented in this medium.”
Atypical Artists has more than a dozen shows actively in development and will be announcing additional shows soon. Their next release, The College Tapes, launches on Luminary this fall.
