You may want to catch a glimpse of a new show premiering this May, “The Loud House,” on Nickelodeon. This cartoon is about a young boy who lives in a house with his ten sisters. What may come as a surprise, however, is that the animator, Jordan Koch, graduated from Southern Lehigh in 2008.

In high school, Koch was involved in the theater program.

“Now, eight years later, I’m still ‘performing,’” Koch said, “but my acting is done through the characters I’m drawing instead of being on stage.”

He performed in two shows per year in all four years of high school and spent numerous hours after school practicing.

“Jordan was always an artistic student. Art was his passion, and I think that is a bit obvious now,” theater director Mr. Matthew Wehr said. “He was also a lot of fun, and I really loved working with him when he played Tevye in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ his senior year. He loved jokes, and was really a people person. He got along with everyone.”

After high school, Koch studied 2D animation at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. His first assignment in college was to animate a tiny, round ball bouncing up and down.

“Seeing that come to life for the first time was one of the most exciting things I had ever seen,” he said. “It was just a stack of pencil drawings, but when put on film, it was like magic!”

Once Koch graduated in 2012, he moved to Los Angeles in search of a job.

“When I first moved to Los Angeles, I was given a coffee mug with the phrase ‘make it happen’ written on it as a housewarming gift,” Koch said. “As I unpacked my bags, I realized I didn’t have anywhere to put my toothbrush, so I just used that coffee mug temporarily until I found something else. Well, to this day, I still keep my toothbrush in that coffee mug, and every morning I’m reminded, no matter what it is, to ‘make it happen.’”

Before starting at Nickelodeon, Koch did freelance illustration work for different companies, including Animation Magazine.

“A little over a month [after moving to Los Angeles], I started working at a small, start-up animation studio doing character design and storyboards, and designing posters for their animated projects,” he said.

Koch feels that if he had landed a job at Nickelodeon right out of college, he would not have had the opportunity to work for Animation Magazine.

“You might not realize it at the time, but we have the opportunity to learn something new every day,” he said. “Take advantage of it!”

He started posting his work on Instagram and Facebook, gaining attention from Chris Savino, creator of “The Loud House.” Savino wrote to Koch to see if he would be interested in working on the show.

“A couple of months later, they sent me a ‘test’ for the show,” Koch said. “ A test is similar to that of an audition for an actor. They’re looking to see if you can draw and think in the style of the show.”

The proudest moment of Koch’s career was when he pitched his first episode of “The Loud House.” After spending seven weeks storyboarding the script, he had the opportunity to stand up in front of the entire crew and pitch the whole episode, playing all the characters.

As a storyboard artist for “The Loud House,” Koch receives the episode script from the writers and then translates it into drawings.  He believes that there is no better feeling than having your work make people laugh.

“I get to draw all day, and I get to work and collaborate with a team of incredibly talented people; writers, painters, actors, character designers, editors, we’re all working together to make something fun and entertaining,” Koch said. “Each day is something new, and it’s very exciting!”