My name is Apollo Umbra and I am a student at Northwestern University with a laundry list of studies that, in all honesty, I’m worried about fitting on my diploma. All jokes aside, I am an LGBTQ+ and FGLI (first generation low income) student currently looking for opportunities following my spring 2025 graduation!
So who am I and how did I end up where I am? I grew up in the beautiful natural landscape of Candler NC, in a unique situation to say the least. I was raised in foster care by the same people who had fostered my mother before me. As a result, I grew up with an extremely unique perspective on the world. Eventually, I found my way into the world of fine arts, exploring every aspect of traditional art and theatre as I could at my rural high school. During this time, I found it difficult to connect with LGBTQ+ role models who were living a life I could see myself in down the road. Ultimately, I applied to fifteen universities around the country, all of which would take me far from the home I had known my entire life.
After the dust had settled on my college application process, I was committed to Northwestern University as a theatre major, largely due to their generous financial aid offer. While theatre was not the exact major I intended to graduate with, Northwestern offered flexibility within my schedule (due to their utilization of the quarter system) that would allow me to continue to explore a variety of art forms. Beyond this, their graduate-level courses in costume design would push me to explore character design and communicative illustration in a new manner.
In my time at Northwestern thus far, I have exploited all aspects of the school to their fullest. I have attached three modules to my degree in Game Design, Interactive Media, and Animation, Costume Design, and Writing for the Stage and Screen. In these areas of study, I have been able to bridge the courses I have taken into a single and exciting focus on visual storytelling which develops rich worlds and characters. Whether that be through the design of costumes based on a script, the fabrication of a model based on an idea, or the illustration of an entire world and cast of characters based on my own writing. All of these interests have drawn me to what I truly want to do in my life: to create relatable and engaging stories, stories that do not bore audiences but shock them with the unexpected, bring attention to that which gets lost in the systems of our society, and help to provide a springboard for innovation and the next generation of creators behind me.
What Projects Would I Enjoy Working On?
Game Design (ttrpg and video)
Animations
Storyboarding
Comic Books
Layout Design
Playwriting
Screenwriting
Experimental Projects
Craft/Puppetry/Prop Projects
and more!
Get to Know Me :)
"I believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast." ~Lewis Carroll
“A Jack of all trades is a master of none, though still often better than a master of one”
Jean Debuffet
Alberto Giacometti
Jean Tinguely
Iris Van Herpen
Christo and Jean Claude
Alexander Calder
Francesca Woodman
Evanston IL, USA
Arles, FR
Athens, GR
Candler NC, USA
The human mind
Milos, GR
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA
Ndebele Villages, SA
Any environment untouched by people
Rejected | Don Hertzfeldt
Mister Smile | Fran Krause
Super Powers | Noddard
More | Mark Osborne
In a Heartbeat | Beth David & Esteban Bravo
Pokémon Black/White/Black2/White2
Kingdom Rush Franchise
Vainglory (R.I.P.) -> now I play Wild Rift
Her Story
Zoo Tycoon + Planet Zoo
Clash Royale
Coraline | Henry Selick | Laika
Alice in Wonderland | Tim Burton | Disney
Interstellar | Christopher Nolan | Paramount
Alien | Ridley Scott | 20th Century
Pitch Perfect | Jason Moore | Universal
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Lost
The Good Place
Harley Quinn
Superstore
Disenchantment
Why Women Kill