Grain & Thunder's Animated Pilot Wins Bronze at the 47th Annual Telly Awards

Minot, ND — Grain & Thunder announced today that its animated pilot Millennial Taekwondo Tortoises has won a Bronze in the TV or Online Shows & Segments — Comedy category for Animated TV, Film & Shorts at the 47th Annual Telly Awards — the same category in which Gold was awarded to South Park by Paramount Pictures.

The recognition places an independently produced pilot from a one-person North Dakota studio alongside some of the most resourced animation productions in the world. The Telly Awards honors excellence in video and television across all screens and is judged by more than 250 industry experts including executives from Google, HBO, Netflix, and the WNBA. This year's competition drew over 13,000 entries globally, with fellow winners including Paramount TV, Warner Brothers Discovery, FOX Entertainment, MoMA, TED, Al Jazeera, ABC News, and Harvard Business School.

Millennial Taekwondo Tortoises is a half-hour animated comedy pilot written, produced, and directed by Grain & Thunder founder Derek Olson. Every frame of the animation was hand-crafted by Olson in Adobe Photoshop — a labor-intensive process that gives the show a distinctive, tactile visual style. The pilot features a cast including actor Flula Borg, Los Angeles comedian Ryan O'Flannagan, and YouTube personality Nathan Barnatt. The show previously screened at the Jerome Independent Film Festival and was evaluated for development by FOX Animation.

"Competing in animation means going up against some of the biggest studios in the world. To have this pilot recognized in the same category as South Park is something I'm genuinely proud of. This show has been a labor of love, and I hope this recognition helps bring it to a wider audience."

— Derek Olson, Founder & Creative Director, Grain & Thunder

The full list of 47th Annual Telly Awards winners can be found at tellyawards.com/winners.

About Millennial Taekwondo Tortoises
Millennial Taekwondo Tortoises is an original animated comedy series created by Derek Olson and produced by Grain & Thunder. The series is available on YouTube at youtube.com/@taekwondotortoises.

About Grain & Thunder
Grain & Thunder is a video production company based in North Dakota, specializing in documentaries, branded content, and original creative work. The company is led by founder and creative director Derek Olson — born and raised in Minot, ND, and a 15-year veteran of the Hollywood production industry. Olson returned to North Dakota to build a production company rooted in the region, bringing a professional-grade creative operation to the northern plains. Learn more at grainandthunder.com.

Media Contact
Derek Olson — derek@grainandthunder.com