Vivienne Medrano

Vivienne Medrano (born October 28, 1992), also known by her online alias VivziePop, is an American YouTuber, animator, writer, director, and producer. She is best known as the creator of the musical television series Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. She also created the webcomic ZooPhobia.

Prior to joining YouTube, Medrano did assistant work on a thesis horror comedy film by Zach Bellissimo titled Blenderstein, in 2011.

Before launching her current channel "VivziePop", Medrano launched her first channel, "xZoOPhobiAx", which features animatics for ZooPhobia.

Medrano launched her YouTube channel under the screen name "VivziePop" in 2012, building a dedicated online audience, who enjoyed her fanwork and original creations. Also in 2012, she started a webcomic titled ZooPhobia, which ran until 2016, ending so that she could find more time to develop Hazbin Hotel. Medrano directed her first short animated film, titled The Son of 666 in 2013. Medrano released her fourth year thesis film entitled "Timber" in 2014, for which she won a Dusty Award in Outstanding Achievement in Character Animation. Medrano named the film after the song of the same name by Pitbull and Kesha, and its score contained homages to the song as well. In October 2014, she released an animated music video for the song "Die Young" by Kesha, which accumulated over 50 million views by October 2019. As a result, she became "relatively well-known" online for her animation and artwork, some of which she shared on her channel. In September 2025, Medrano said she would love to develop the world of "Timber" in the future, adding she has "projects that are...in my head that I would love to work on. It’s just about finding the time."

Medrano received a Bachelor in Fine Arts and graduated from School of Visual Arts in August 2014. She worked as a freelance animator for two years. She continued to work on her webcomic ZooPhobia until 2016 when she ended it to focus her attention on Hazbin Hotel. Hazbin Hotel would be crowdfunded through Patreon.

Medrano founded the animation studio SpindleHorse, under which the pilot for Hazbin Hotel, the pilot and first season for Helluva Boss, and several animated shorts would be released. Medrano serves as the director, writer and character designer for SpindleHorse Toons. In an interview with Cartoon Brew, she said that much of the Hazbin Hotel pilot was funded by money from her Patreon, rather than income from YouTube's algorithm. The company Horseless Cowboy assisted Medrano with voice casting during the first season of Helluva Boss, with Richard Steven Horvitz serving as the voice director. Cartoon Brew described her as a "paragon of indie success in animation".

In October 2019, the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel was released on Medrano's YouTube channel. By September 2025, it had garnered over 117 million views. In November 2019, the pilot of Helluva Boss was released on her YouTube channel as well. In July 2020, Medrano released an animated music video for Hazbin Hotel called "Addict", featuring the Silva Hound song of the same name. In August 2020, Hazbin Hotel was picked up for a full series by A24. Animation Magazine said that A24 was taking a "bold step" by picking up the series. In 2023, scholar Ben Mitchell described Medrano's Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss as series which were "sensationally popular" and an effective use of Patreon to subsidize the show's art "through monthly tiered payments".

On September 30, 2020, Medrano released an animated short film titled "Bad Luck Jack", based on ZooPhobia. The short was nominated and won for a Ursa Major Award in the "Best Dramatic Short Work" category. The short was also listed as a "Recommended Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work" on the Ursa Major Award website. In September 2025, Medrano said she would like to do more with the webcomic's characters, possibly including more animated shorts and a graphic novel, the latter of which she wanted do as a college student.