The fully Bahamian made TV series, Goombay Kids, has recently launched its Season 4 internationally and is now available to over 150 million viewers.
Seasons 1-4 can be viewed on Roku Worldwide, YouTube Kids, Happy Kids, AppleTV, Amazon Fire TV, Batterypop and Pavilion Plus. The series has now also just secured a streaming deal with another of the largest streaming platforms in North America, Tubi, along with the educational platform, Kanopy, that has a June 10th launch date.
Goombay Kids is the most award-winning live-action island adventure children’s TV show out of the Caribbean and now the longest-running narrative episodic show made in The Bahamas.
The series speaks to the importance of cultural identity, environmental awareness and inclusion through fun island adventures and storytelling. Goombay Kids showcases Bahamian and Caribbean talent and empowers kids to make a difference while learning to respect themselves and the world around them.
Goombay Kids was awarded a grant to support the series in their initiative by the Creative Caribbean project, a regional initiative implemented by UNESCO, Caricom and the University of the West Indies with funding from the ACP EU Culture Programme.
With this grant Goombay Kids is producing an animated song entitled, ‘Changing Our World,’ created by Bahamian music producer Shad Fer with lyrics by Chairo the Fox.
Goombay Kids creator, Stephanie K. Nihon says, “We are so grateful to UNESCO Creative Caribbean for their support. What a great opportunity for us to help build more animation experience in our country and showcase very talented Bahamian musicians with such meaningful messaging.”
The animated short promotes environmental awareness for children and will be featured on YouTube Kids as well as on their next season on streaming platforms.
The production seeks to train Bahamians in animation in which they will be learning from the top industry professionals in their field. The team consists of animation producer, Kyle Jolly (Avengers, Family Guy, Housebroken)— based out of LA, Animation director Elisa Giménez, the animation team at Astrolab, Editor and DIT, Craig Walkine Jr., Associate Producer, Mia Smith and Goombay Kids Creator, Stephanie K. Nihon.
Kyle Jolly states, “Working with the Goombay Kids creative team for this UNESCO Creative Caribbean project has been a pleasure and a privilege. This is one of the best experiences of my career and I feel like we’re hitting all of the tenets of credibility, conservation, capacity building, communication and communities that Creative Caribbean has designed for maximum impact. As a long-standing member of the animation community this project feels authentic, impactful, immersive and fun. I can’t wait to share it with the world.”
Craig Walkine added, “It is such a pleasure and honor to work on this project among some of the best in the industry. Being able to come together and collaborate with such legends in the industry is nothing short of spectacular. I look forward to continuing to grow and learn from everyone involved and to collectively create amazing and impactful stories.”
Goombay Kids is excited to be diving more into animation since creating animated shorts for their season 5 which will come out later this year on streaming platforms. You can follow Goombay Kids on YouTube, Tik Tok, IG and Facebook and join their mailing list for auditions and news at www.goombaykids.com.
