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THE ARTISAN WINTER 2022 • 21 Department Head Make-Up April Chaney talks about ABBOTT ELEMENTARY How did you get started as a make-up artist in the entertainment industry? I was recruited from the Armani counter at Saks Fifth Avenue by Emmy® winner Heather Currie, who is now a make-up artist for The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Working at Saks for 15 years educated me. I worked on many skin types, ethnicities, etc. I mastered the color wheel. Heather helped me get signed with an agency in Los Angeles, and I began assisting another artist and working on photo shoots. You are currently the Department Head Make-up for the Warner Bros. Television/ABC comedy Abbott Elementary. How do you approach the make-up for a TV series? Does it start with the script? It does begin with the script, and it is a joint effort with the talent and the producers. Abbott Elementary stars uinta Brunson, who is also the creator and executive producer. We came together with a joint sense of what each character should look like. How do you individualize each character's look? If the character has a bolder personality, then we might use a bolder lip shade. Sheryl Lee Ralph's character of Barbara, for example, is loosely based on uinta's own mother who is very well put together. Her make- up always coincides with her outfit, which is something we took into consideration. Do you collaborate with the actors on their look/personal preferences? I communicate with each actor about their preferred look. We have actresses that do not want their lipstick to rub off on their mask, so for that, we will use a matte lipstick. For some of our gentlemen, they prefer to use green beauty, and one of the lines we've chosen is Burt's Bees lip balm. Another actor prefers minimal make-up, so we use a tinted moisturizer on him. As an esthetician, I'm also con- scious of scents and ingredients that might cause an allergic reaction or breakouts. Some of my favorite lipsticks that do not have fragrance in them are Christian Dior and The Lip Bar. Do you also collaborate with the costume designer? Prior to each episode, I work directly with our costume department in creating each look. They give the actors five different options weekly, and each morning I look at what is selected. The show is based on a school in Philadelphia and make-up trends often align with the location. How did you learn about Philadelphia trends? I looked on Instagram for social media personalities based in Philadelphia. It is not all that different. You wouldn't believe how influential we are in California. We've changed the game when it comes to music, make-up, hair, culture, etc. There are some regional differences though; for example, I'm from the South, and we don't use as much foundation because it's so humid. How do you approach putting make-up on children in this show? We are currently working on an episode that features a step team, so we went in a very cute direction. The girls loved it. I worked on Above: April Chaney. Below left: The cast of Abbott Elementary. Photo: ©2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.