‘Dead End: Paranormal Park’ Creator Hamish Steele Celebrates the One Year Anniversary of His Iconic Cartoon’s Premiere

Dead End: Paranormal Park is a fabulously queer cartoon that was cancelled too soon. So, on the one year anniversary of the former Netflix series’ premiere, Dead End creator Hamish Steele (he/they) took fans down memory lane. 

On June 16, 2022, Dead End: Paranormal Park premiered on Netflix. Created by Steele, a London-based animation director, comic book artist, and writer, Dead End told the story of gay, trans, Jewish teen Barney (Zach Barack). Desperately seeking understanding and independence, Barney takes an interview at an amusement park called Phoenix Parks created by Dolly Parton-esque entertainer Pauline Phoenix (Miss Coco Peru). His dog, Pugsley (Alex Brightman), tags along, and both Barney and his pet best friend encounter bisexual, autistic, Pakistani-American teen Norma (Kody Kavitha) who’s a Pauline Phoenix super fan seeking a job at the amusement park as well. When both teens snag a job at Phoenix Parks, together with Pugsley and a 1000-year old demon named Courtney (Emily Osment), they realize that their duties assigned are going to entail much more than amusement park maintenance and revolve more around fighting off the paranormal. 

Beyond having a fabulous story, Dead End, like many animated shows, provided nuanced narratives of individuals from different marginalized backgrounds, while telling a fantastical story. The show provided strong LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, physical disability, religious, Black, and Brown representation on-screen and even highlighted high-profile voice talent, such as Pose’s Michaela Jaé Rodriguez and Angelica Ross, and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump. Sadly, on January 13, 2023 Steele announced that the series had been canceled after season two aired.

While Dead End fans are still reeling from its cancellation, Steele celebrated the anniversary of the show’s premiere with a behind-the-scenes Twitter thread – giving insight into the show’s creation process. Here’s what he had to share. 

Related:

Hamish Steele and Zach Barack on “Dead End’s” Trans Storytelling

“I’ve always felt our goal with this show is that it has representation in it, but also is kind of queer in its bones.”