American entertainer Olivia Rodrigo
Credit: © Tinseltown, Shutterstock

American actress, singer, and songwriter Olivia Rodrigo has transformed from a Disney Channel star to a big name in pop music. Rodrigo first became known as an actress on television programs produced for the Disney Channel. Guts, Rodrigo’s second studio album, was released on Sep. 8, 2023. The album is full of emotional ballads and artful lyrics perfect for singing along.

Olivia Isabel Rodrigo was born on Feb. 20, 2003, in Temecula, California, southeast of Los Angeles. Rodrigo began taking voice, piano, and guitar lessons as a child. She acted in middle and high school performances and began acting professionally in 2016. She played a leading character, Paige Olvera, on the Disney TV series “Bizaardvark” (2016-2019).

In 2019, Rodrigo gained the lead role of Nini in “High School Musical: The Musical—The Series.” She wrote and performed original songs for the series, including “All I Want” (2019) and a duet with Joshua Bassett, “Just for a Moment” (2020).

She released her first single “Drivers License” on Jan. 8, 2021. It soon hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is now nominated at the 64th Grammy Awards for song of the year, record of the year, and best pop solo performance. Rodrigo is also nominated for best music video or film for “Good 4 U” (2021), best pop vocal album for Sour (2021), album of the year for Sour, and best new artist.

After “Drivers License,” her next two singles— “Deja Vu” (2021) and “Good 4 U”—also debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard “Hot 100″ chart. She became the first recording artist to start a career with three singles in the top 10. Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour, included elements of pop, folk, and rock music.

Besides releasing catchy singles, Rodrigo also took a trip to the White House this summer. She met with President Joe Biden and the immunologist and Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, Anthony Fauci, to discuss the importance of young people getting vaccinated against COVID-19. In December, Rodrigo was named Entertainer of the Year by Time magazine. She announced a world tour for 2022 in which she will travel to Europe, Canada, and across the United States.

Jenna Ortega attends the world premiere of “Scream VI” at AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York on March 06, 2023.
Credit: © Lev Radin, Shutterstock

From starring in horror movies to television shows, Jenna Ortega is moody and talented! Ortega began her acting career as a child, appearing in minor motion picture and television roles before gaining popularity on the Disney Channel. She later transitioned into more adult television and theatrical roles. Ortega gained widespread attention in 2022 for her portrayal of the title character in the television series “Wednesday,” based on the Addams Family characters originally created by Charles Addams. Ortega opened a new chapter of fame through her dark, moody, and unique portrayal of Wednesday.

“Wednesday” is directed by American motion picture director Tim Burton, who brings a modern twist to “The Addams Family,” which originally aired in the 1960’s. Ortega’s character is expelled from school after releasing piranhas on the boy’s water polo practice in retaliation for the team bullying her brother. Wednesday’s parents enroll her in their alma mater Nevermore Academy, a school for kids just like Wednesday in rural Vermont. Some of the series was filmed in Transylvania, a region in Romania, which was the main site of the legend about the vampire Dracula. Spooky!

Jenna Marie Ortega was born Sept. 27, 2002, in Coachella Valley, California. Her acting career started when her mother posted a video of her on Facebook. The video soon led to minor and supporting roles in television and film. In 2014, she began to gain more attention through her roles in television, most notably programs on the Disney Channel and the CW Television Network.

From 2014 to 2019, she portrayed the young version of Jane in the CW television series “Jane the Virgin.” From 2016 to 2018, she starred in the Disney Channel television series “Stuck in the Middle.” In 2019, she appeared in the Netflix series “You.”

Since 2020, Ortega has also taken on leading roles in motion pictures, often in horror movies. She starred in The Fallout, Scream, and X (all 2022). In 2023, she starred in Scream VI, the sequel to Scream (2022). You will see Ortega more and more in new movies and television shows!

Disney and Pixar’s animated movie Turning Red (2022)
Credit: © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

What’s red, fluffy, and loves boy bands? Pixar’s newest movie Turning Red is a big hit shining a spotlight on red pandas. Turning Red is an animated motion picture released by Pixar Animation Studios and the Walt Disney Company in 2022. It tells the story of a young Chinese-Canadian girl who discovers she can shapeshift into a red panda. The movie is set in Toronto. It was the first Pixar movie created by an all-woman leadership team.

Turning Red tells the story of the Chinese-Canadian 13-year-old Meilin “Mei” Lee, who lives in Toronto. Mei’s family includes her mother, Ming, and father, Jin. They maintain a Chinese temple dedicated to their ancestor Sun Yee. Mei works to balance pleasing her mother and being herself with her friends Abby Park, Miriam Mendelsohn, and Priya Mangal. Mei and her friends obsess over a boy band called 4*TOWN. After Ming embarrasses her daughter, Mei has a nightmare about red pandas and wakes up transformed into a giant red panda. Mei hides her transformation from her parents. But, she cannot keep her newfound ability hidden for long, and its discovery leads her to secrets in her family’s past.

The Lee family is voiced by Rosalie Chiang (Mei); Sandra Oh (Ming); Orion Lee (Jin); and Wai Ching Ho (Mei’s grandmother Wu). Mei’s friends are voiced by Hyein Park (Abby); Ava Morse (Miriam); and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Priya).

The film was directed by the Chinese-Canadian animator and screenwriter Domee Shi and the American playwright and television writer Julia Cho. The American actor and producer Lindsey Collins produced the film.

The film’s soundtrack, also released in 2022, features original songs written and composed by the Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson. The American singer-songwriter siblings Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell wrote three original songs performed by 4*TOWN in the film.

In real life, red pandas are adorable and unique creatures. A red panda is a medium-sized mammal with a red coat and a long, ringed tail. The red panda is also called the lesser panda, in reference to the much larger giant panda. Red pandas are not closely related to giant pandas or any other living animal. Red pandas live in bamboo forests on upper mountain slopes. Red pandas are arboreal—that is, they live in trees. A red panda has adaptations that allow it to climb trees easily including its tail for balancing and flexible ankles which allow it to climb headfirst down trees. They are found in parts of Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, and Nepal.

Human population growth in the Himalayan region threatens the habitat of the red panda. Deforestation has reduced the area where red pandas live in the wild. Red pandas are in danger of dying out completely. They are protected by national and international laws. Scientists and wildlife officials have worked to help ensure the pandas’ survival by protecting their habitat and breeding them in zoos.

Encanto opened in the United States on Nov. 24, 2021.  The story introduces the Madrigals, a compelling and complicated extended family who live in a wondrous and charmed place in the mountains of Colombia. 
Credit: © Disney

Encanto is an animated motion picture released by the Walt Disney Company in 2021. The movie is set in Colombia and features Disney’s first entirely Latino voice cast. 

The film’s soundtrack, released in 2021, became a worldwide hit. The album spent more than a week at the number one spot on Billboard magazine‘s “200 Albums” chart. Encanto became Disney’s first animated film to have two songs in the top 10 on Billboard magazine’s “Hot 100” chart. The song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” performed in the film by Adassa, Stephanie Beatriz, Mauro Castillo, Rhenzy Feliz, Carolina Gaitán, and Diane Guerrero, reached number 2. “Surface Pressure,” performed in the film by Jessica Darrow, broke the chart’s top 10. The soundtrack featured original songs written and composed by the American musical theater composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. It also featured instrumental music by the American composer Germaine Franco. 

Encanto tells the story of the magical Madrigal family. The family was led to a safe haven and magical home known as Encanto by its matriarch (ruling mother). The Madrigals’ magic comes from the flame of a candle that gives a unique power to each descendent. The movie’s protagonist (main character), Mirabel, is the only member of the family who did not receive a magical gift. According to prophecy, it is up to her to restore the family’s magic when it starts to falter and repair the bonds among the family members.  

Members of the Madrigal family include Mirabel (voiced by Beatriz); Luisa (Darrow); Isabela (Guerrero); Pepa (Gaitán); Félix (Castillo); Dolores (recording artist Adassa); Camilo (Feliz); Bruno (John Leguizamo); and Abuela Alma (Olga Merediz, singing, and María Cecilia, speaking). Colombian singers featured in Encanto included Maluma, who provided the voice of Luisa’s love interest Mariano, and Sebastián Yatra, who sang the film’s main theme, “Dos Oruguitas.”  

The film was directed by the American screenwriter Jared Bush and the Japanese-born American animator and character designer Byron Howard. The American playwright Charise Castro Smith co-directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Bush.  

April 13, 2020

In late March, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in New York City named the computer scientists Ed Catmull and Pat Hanrahan as the recipients of the annual A. M. Turing Award. The award is given to one or more individuals each year in recognition of contributions of lasting importance in the field of computing. Catmull and Hanrahan were honored for their work on three-dimensional (3-D) computer graphics and the impact of these techniques on computer-generated imagery (CGI). Their work has greatly influenced the motion picture and video game industries as well as the fields of augmented reality and virtual reality.

The 1995 film Toy Story used 3-D animation software created in part by Ed Catmull and Pat Hanrahan, the winners of this year’s A. M. Turing Award. Credit: © Walt Disney Pictures/ZUMA Press

Ed Catmull is a former president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. Pat Hanrahan, a founding employee at Pixar, is a professor in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at Stanford University. Catmull and Hanrahan helped guide Pixar through its early years (the animation studio was created in 1986), and they helped create the “RenderMan” graphics system that gives two-dimensional images a 3-D appearance.

Under Catmull, Pixar used the RenderMan software to produce the motion picture Toy Story (1995), the first fully computer-animated feature film. Pixar then used RenderMan in a number of highly successful Toy Story sequels and other animated films. RenderMan software has also been used in numerous video games and in such blockbuster live-action films as Avatar, Titanic, and movies in the “Lord of the Rings,” “Jurassic Park,” and “Star Wars” series.

Alan M. Turing (at right) was an English mathematician and computer pioneer. He made important contributions to the development of electronic digital computers. Credit: Heritage-Images/Science Museum, London

The A. M. Turing Award is named after Alan Mathison Turing, a British mathematician and computer pioneer. Turing made key contributions to the development of electronic computers, including his work helping to build the first British electronic digital computer. In 1950, he proposed a test for determining if machines might be said to “think.” This test, now called the Turing test, is still central to discussions of artificial intelligence.

The first Turing Award was given to the American computer scientist Alan J. Perlis in 1966 for his role in developing influential computer-programming techniques. Since then, an award has been given every year. As of 2014, the award includes a $1 million cash prize. Catmull and Hanrahan are scheduled to receive the A.M. Turing Award at ACM’s annual awards banquet on June 20, 2020, in San Francisco, California. That event is contingent, of course, on the containment or continued spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.