Casey Cruz was born in the small town of Bel Air, Maryland. With little to do, and a big imagination, Casey’s fascination with art started very young. While she watched TV and movies, she would scribble the characters she enjoyed most onto envelopes with colored pencils. During elementary school, she would frequently buy the Nintendo drawing guides and follow the tutorials for drawing the characters. She made story books using herself and her friends as the heroes, and made Sonic fan comics with characters based on her classmates and teachers.
She recalls always telling people she would be a cartoonist when she grew up. Casey became an avid fan of anime and manga in her pre-teen years and drew characters almost daily. At age 12, she started to write her own manga script, which nine years later, became the basis for her college thesis project. In high school, she attended Passaic County Technical Institute in New Jersey where she studied Graphic Design for four years. This experience led her to use her design and illustration skills to pursue projects in webcomics and digital illustration.
Casey Cruz is a recent graduate of William Paterson University of New Jersey. Her concentration was Drawing, Printmaking, and Painting. Drawing had always been an intuitive process for her, however, her interest in digital illustration and painting had intensified during her time in college.
Casey has had some special recognition in her short career. In 2017, she won a gold medal in the SkillsUSA National T-Shirt Design Competition. In 2020, her work was selected for the competitive Student Poster Competition at the SIGGRAPH International Conference. She also recently curated her first fine art exhibition in 2022 titled Now They See Us. This exhibition featured student works with a variety of mediums, emphasizing the importance of artistic diversity. To conclude her collegiate endeavors, Casey recieved the William Paterson University Award for Creative Excellence in Digital Art and Design in 2023.
Currently residing in Morris County, New Jersey, Casey continues to create her comic series Trinity: Vampire on Webtoon with the intention of publishing the series into graphic novels. She also creates freelance graphics and illustrations and actively remains involved in her local artist network by showcasing her work in local galleries, conventions, and art fairs.