Jey Parks

Parks started drawing cat versions of people since about age 11 or 12.[1][2] Around 12, they loved The Phantom of the Opera and had a running gag about The Phantom of the Cats. Eventually, they drew the characters as cats.[3] A few years later, Parks became obsessed with the British television series Doctor Who. Around 2008, Parks began drawing more realistic Doctor Who cats.[2]

Parks has a Bachelor's degree (BFA) in Illustration from the California College of Arts and a graduate degree in scientific illustration from the UC Santa Cruz.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Previously, Parks drew wildlife like big cats, birds, dinosaurs, fruit bats, insects, and plants.[7] Their work can be found via iPhone apps for the National Park Service.[9] Parks would regularly attend conventions as C2E2, San Diego Comic-Con, and WonderCon.[12]

Parks' art is drawn and painted digitally via Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop.[3][9][13] Parks creates their art digitally with a Cintiq graphics tablet via Photoshop.[1][9] Their fan art career took off with a table at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con where they had Doctor Mew buttons and posters as well as when Doctor Mew went viral.[14] Parks became famous due to Doctor Mew.[4][5][6][7][8][10][11] Later, Parks created other fan art pieces as The Catvengers.[1][13][15][11] Doctor Mew represented their most prominent work until Star Trek Cats in 2017.[14][10][12] In March 2018, Star Trek Cats was followed-up with Star Trek: The Next Generation Cats.[16] Parks also has a Patreon account.[10][12]

Newsarama's Chris Arrant called Jey Parks a "noted cat painter."[17] Visual News's Jessica Czeck said Doctor Mew made Jey Parks "internet famous."[6] Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston pointed out Parks was CatConLA's "[o]ne of the most sought-after artists."[23] Catster's Phillip Mlyner noted they were "a cat illustrator par excellence."[2] Petslady.com's Laurie Kay Olson deigned their work "delightful, entertaining, and more than just a little bit, well, catty."[10] In October 2015, Outlaw Kritters staff selected Parks as the featured artist of the week.[13] Reviewing Star Trek Cats in a thirty-year retrospective, GeekDad's Jules Sherred referred to them as "a great illustrator."[37]

Parks has a female black domestic short-haired cat named Mab and a male tuxedo cat Mamoko.[3][7][2][14][13] In 2013, they lived in San Francisco, California.[4][5][6][8][2] In 2016, they lived in Denver, Colorado.[14][10][38]

• Doctor Who fandom
• List of University of California, Santa Cruz people