Sharada Venkateswaran

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With a specialization in compositing, character animation and pre-production, Sharada is a top performing animation graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Not only is she recognized as a Student Leadership Award recipient, but also for academic excellence as a Dean’s List graduate. Her work as the sole creator of her soon-to-be-released film, Mehendi, and her diverse work experience, makes her a highly results-driven and adaptable individual. Sharada is passionate about her work and strives to tell everyday stories through animation.

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Skills and Programs:

ADOBE SUITE (I.E. PHOTOSHOP, AFTER EFFECTS, PREMIERE, ETC) – TOONBOOM HARMONY – TOONBOOM STORYBOARD PRO – AUTODESK MAYA 2023 – DRAGONFRAME – UNITY – LOGIC– ABLETON– FINAL DRAFT 12 – MICROSOFT OFFICE SUITE – TRADITIONAL/PAPER ANIMATION – MULTI-PROGRAM PIPELINES – LEADERSHIP – PEOPLE MANAGEMENT – TRAINING – BUDGETING – PROJECT ORGANIZATION – GOOGLE WORKPLACE SUITE

 

 

Professional Experience

Video Editor and Compositor | INDIRAP – Chicago, IL                                                                                                                    September 2025 to Present

Video Production and Brand Growth Commercial Company

• Edit raw footage through the complete post-production pipeline (rough-cut, final sequence creation, motion graphics implementation, color grading, etc).

• Stylize video editing to suit client needs (event recaps, consumer interviews, YouTube-style content, TikTok professional content, etc).

• Utilize cross-platform Adobe pipelines between Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, and Media Encoder.

 

Animation Assistant | Hermit Falls – Chicago, IL                                                                                                                                           May 2025 to Present

Independent Film ‘Hermit Fall’s by Pablo Lorenzana

• Execute project milestones as communicated with film director, as well as facilitate coordination with other assisting animators.

• Render animation frames using a multi-pass coloring system through Photoshop.

 

Early College Program Summer Institute (ECPSI) Coordinator | SAIC Residence Life – Chicago, IL                                 May 2025 to August 2025

Residence Life for ECPSI Students at Jones Residence Hall.

• Lead trainings for Summer Resident Advisors, including building training materials, facilitating trainings, and functioning as staff support during trainings.

• Provide direct support and guidance to 500+ high school students, ensuring a safe, enriching, and inclusive pre-college residential experience. 

• Liaise between parents, students, summer housing assistants, continuing studies, and residence life staff, managing timely communication and resolving concerns with professionalism and discretion. 

• Crisis responder onsite, including mental health and medical emergencies, supporting incident documentation, and coordinating with health and safety personnel.

• Maintained and organized critical administrative systems using Google Workspace.

 

Gallery Director/Administrator | SAIC Siragusa Gallery – Chicago, IL                                                                                    August 2024 to May 2025

Residence Halls Exhibition (RHE) for the Siragusa Gallery- an accredited gallery in downtown Chicago.

• Supervised team of 7 student workers to curate, market, communicate and install work for various exhibitions.

• Designed programming for gallery showings throughout the academic year for several themes of work.

• Kept track of budgeting and spending for exhibitions, as well as inventory.

 

Senior Resident Advisor (SRA) | SAIC Residence Life – Chicago, IL                                                                                                August 2024 to May 2025

Residence Life for the Buckingham Student Apartments.

• Completed Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Training through the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, valid through August 2026.

• Supervised a total of 8 resident advisors (RA’s) for the student residence halls. Helping to manage a total of 300+ residents and responsible for maintaining appropriate living standards.

• Performed weekly office tasks for residence life teams across all residence halls. This includes on-call database maintenance, mentorship, ad hoc tasks, etc. – as well as keeping the residence life team prepared for ongoing events, planning and programming for the dormitories.

• Resolved crisis management situations doing on-call shifts, finding solutions in carious low to high-pressure situations.

 

Assistant Manager | SAIC IRFM – Chicago, IL                                                                                                                                      January 2023 to May 2025

Instructional Resources and Facilities Management (IRFM) for the Sharp and Sullivan office at SAIC.

• Managed teams of 15-20 student workers to accomplish facility maintenance and develop audio-visual (AV) solutions across SAIC campus.

• Created maintenance tickets withing electronic database (FAMIS 360) to delegate work to different maintenance departments.

 

Peer Advisor (PA) | SAIC Academic Spine – Chicago, IL                                                                                                                     January 2024 to May 2024

Structuring peer support and mentoring for students in SAIC’s open curriculum.

• Mentored 15+ sophomore students on their work and art development, including participating in critiques and course assessment.

• Assist the professor with ad hoc tasks during the semester.

 

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Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film/Video/New Media/Animation (FVNMA) – SAIC                                                                                  Graduated May 2025

Specializing in 2D animation/Experimental 2D.

Extracurriculars:

• Group Leader: SEED Club at SAIC, 2022 – 2025

• Earl the Eel: Making Pollution Clean Up Fun, Cool Science National Showcase, University of Massachusetts, 2024

• Workshop Assistant, Friends of the Chicago River Student Congress, 2023S

 

Summer Intensive, Introduction to Film, Animation and Design – Vancouver Film School (VFS)                                                                        July 2019

Summer certification course at VFS in Canada.

• Certificate of Completion, Introduction to Film, Animation and Design, VFS Summer Intensive

 

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Film/Video Projects

• ​Colorist, Hermit Falls (2026), Dir. Pablo Lorenzana

• Volunteer, Chicago Underground Film Festival (2025)​

• Creator, Mehendi (2025), Dir. Sharada Venkateswaran

• Voice Talent, Bootstrapping for the Boobied (2025), Dir. Stella Chen

• Storyboard Artist, The Color Eater Witch (2025), Dir. Tolu Adeniji

• Production Assistant (PA), Thallam (2025), Dir. Aditi Chandra

• Actor and Voice Over, A Strange Peace (2025), Dir. Tolu Adeniji

• Voice Talent, I'm Just Not Having a Good Time Right Now (2024), Dir. Mads Thelin

• Creator, Blood Rush (2023), Dir. Sharada Venkateswaran

• Production Assistant (PA) and Makeup, Red Hands (2023), Dir. Tolu Adeniji

 

Exhibitions & Shows

• MEHENDI (Work in Progress) – Preview of MEHENDI – Gene Siskel FVNMA Showcase 2025, Gene Siskel Film Center

• Big Stretch – Excerpt from Blood Rush – Make it, Don’t Break it! 2024, Siragusa Gallery

• Excerpt from Blood Rush – OuRArt 2024, Siragusa Gallery

• 6439 Evergreen Ln N – OuRArt 2023, Siragusa Gallery

• Out of Vogue – ArtBash 2022, Black Box

• Student Leadership Award, Class of 2025– School of the Art Institute of Chicago

• Dean’s List class of 2025 – School of the Art Institute of Chicago

• AP Scholar Award