cartoon creators

Butch Hartman is an American animator, writer, director and voice actor who created The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy and Bunsen is a Beast for Nickelodeon. He also wrote the U.S. dub of Doogal. The Fairly OddParents is one of the longest running Nicktoons of all time, behind SpongeBob SquarePants. His cartoons, particularly The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom are staples of Millennial culture. He is married to Julieann Hartman.

Craig McCracken has been interested in drawing and animation since the age of three. Some of his sources of inspiration are Japanese anime, Super Friends (1973), Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986) and Little Golden Books. After briefly considering a career as a comic book illustrator, McCracken studied animation at Cal Arts in LA (along with fellow classmate and Dexter's Laboratory (1996) creator Genndy Tartakovsky. His most famous creation, The Powerpuff Girls (1998), began life in a student film under the less-cutesy title, Whoopass Stew! (1992), it was quickly renamed The Powerpuff Girls (1998).

Lauren Johanna Faust is an American animator, writer, storyboard artist and director. She developed My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which had a good following among males. She also worked on The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, The Iron Giant, Wander Over Yonder, Kid Cosmic and DC Super Hero Girls. She is married to fellow animator Craig McCracken and had a daughter.

Alex Hirsch is an animator, television writer, and voice actor from Piedmont, California. His primary claim to fame is serving as the show creator for the hit animated series "Gravity Falls" (2012-2016), a mystery comedy series where twin protagonists investigate the local mysteries of a strange town in Oregon. Hirsch also served as the voice actor for Grunkle Stan/Stan Pines, his sidekick Soos Ramirez, and the demon Bill Cipher.

In 1985, Hirsch and his twin sister Ariel were born in Piedmont, California. Piedmont is a small city, which had about 10,500 residents in 1980. It is completely surrounded by the neighboring city of Oakland. Piedmond has a reputation for racial segregation, and was formerly identified as a "sundown town" (an all-white municipality where "colored people" had to leave town by sundown).

Hirsch reportedly has Jewish descent on his father's side of the family, but he was raised to be agnostic. The family regularly celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah, without sharing in theistic beliefs. From 1994 to 1998, Hirsch and his sister Ariel spend their summer vacations living with their great-aunt Lois in a cabin in the woods. Hirsch has credited these summer vacations as an inspiration for "Gravity Falls".

Hirsch received his secondary education at Piedmont High School, a co-educational school established in 1922. The school was highlighted in news stories during the 1990s, when it was discovered that its social clubs and charity organizations were actually drinking clubs for students. In 2002, Hirsch won the school's annual Bird Calling Contest. Shortly after, he had a guest star appearance in "Late Show with David Letterman".

Hirsch received his college education at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts, 1961-), a private art university located in Santa Clarita, California. The university has a decades-long history of training aspiring animators. During his college years, Hirsch developed several animated short films. One of his films was chosen by Nicktoons Network for broadcast as part of their short-lived variety series "Shorts in a Bunch" (2007). In 2006, while still a college student, Hirsch was hired by the animation studio Laika to work in an upcoming animated feature. The film ended in development hell. Hirsch graduated from CalArts in 2007.

Shortly after his graduation, Hirsch was hired as a writer and storyboard artist for an animated series which was still in its development stages. It was "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" (2008-2010), which lasted for 3 seasons and 46 episodes. The series focused on an innocent young boy who finds a mentor in the person of the ill-tempered Captain K'nuckles, an Irish pirate who has semi-retired due to old age. The series was noted for its steampunk-like depictions of the 19th century, and for its moral ambiguity.

Hirsch was later credited with the development of the animated series "Fish Hooks" (2010-2014), which lasted for 3 seasons and 110 episodes. The series featured anthropomorphic fish in an high school setting. Part of the plot focused on the unrequited love of the character Oscar for his best friend Bea Goldfishberg, while she was oblivious to his affections for most of the series' duration. For this series, Hirsch voiced the recurring character Clamantha. She was the school's head cheerleader who had an unrequited love for Oscar. The series had an unusual visual style, a mix of 2D digital animation and photo collages. It won a BAFTA award, and was nominated for several other awards.

In 2012, Hirsch launched his own animated series, "Gravity Falls" (2012-2016). Hirsch reportedly based several of the characters on members of his family and past acquaintances. It featured twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines investigating paranormal incidents in a small town of Oregon. The series started with monster-of-the-week episodes, but had a series-wide story arc concerning a number of peculiar journals and their initially unnamed author. The series received critical acclaim and high ratings, winning two Emmy Awards, three Annie Awards, and a BAFTA Children's Award. The series lasted for 2 seasons and 40 episodes, with Hirsch not interested in further continuing its plots.

In 2018, Hirsch published a graphic novel based on "Gravity Falls". It became a New York Times Best Seller. Also in 2018, Hirsh served as a story contributor to the animated film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse". In 2020, Hirsch started voicing several characters in the animated series "The Owl House" (2020-). The series was created by animator Dana Terrace, who is Hirsch's longtime girlfriend.

In 2021, Hirsch started serving as an executive producer for the science fiction comedy series "Inside Job" (2021-). The series focuses on a shadow government organization which strives to keep secret a number of conspiracies. The series is largely inspired by real-life conspiracy theories. It features (among other things) reptilian shapeshifters, human-animal hybrids, and survivors from the hollow Earth. The series has received critical praise for both its satirical elements, and for its semi-realistic portrayal of real-life problems, such as "office politics, sexism, classism, jingoism".

As of 2022, Hirsch is 36-years-old, and has no interest in retiring. He remains popular among animation fans, and he has been noted for his vocal criticism of censorship in the medium.

Rebecca Sugar is an American animator, television writer, television producer, and singer-songwriter from Maryland. Her primary claims to fame are serving as the show creator of the hit animated series "Steven Universe" (2013-2019), and one of main writers and storyboard artists for the animated series "Adventure Time" (2010-2018). She has been nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards throughout her career.

In 1987, Sugar was born to a Jewish family in Silver Spring, Maryland, the 5th most-populated settlement in Maryland (following Baltimore, Columbia, Waldorf and Germantown). Sugar has commented that she still regularly celebrates Hanukkah as an adult.

Sugar was a student of Montgomery Blair High School, but also received visual arts lessons through a program of the (unaffiliated) Albert Einstein High School. During her high school years, Sugar drew comic strips for the school's newspaper, "Silver Chips". She won a writing award for one of her comic strips. After her graduation, Sugar attended the "School of Visual Arts" in New York City.

During her time as a college student, Sugar directed short animated films. She had a close working relationship with fellow animator Ian Jones-Quartey, who would later become first her long-term boyfriend and then her husband. She provided background artwork for "nockFORCE", a web animation series which Jones-Quartey had launched on YouTube.

In 2010, Sugar published her first graphic novel, "Pug Davis". It featured a gay couple who work as astronauts. Shortly after, Sugar was hired as a storyboard revisionist for the television series "Adventure Time". A month later, she was promoted to a full storyboard artist due to the quality of her work. Sugar was encouraged by the show's creative team to use her own life experiences as inspirations for the character development of Marceline the Vampire Queen, one of the show's main characters. At that time, Sugar took writing advice from co-workers who had experience in working on indie and underground comics. She was told to "not hold anything back" when it came to writing.

Sugar continued working on "Adventure Time" until its 5th season, while also working on her own series "Steven Universe" since 2013. Sugar eventually quit working on "Adventure Time" as she found the workload of simultaneously working full-time on both series to be overly challenging. She later wrote a song used in the 7th season of "Adventure Time".

For "Steven Universe", Sugar worked as the show's executive producer throughout its run. She also served as a storyboard artist for several of the show's episodes. Sugar directed the spin-off film "Steven Universe: The Movie" (2019) and co-produced the sequel mini-series "Steven Universe Future" (2019-2020). The show placed an emphasis on the importance of "healthy interpersonal relationships" to one's well-being. She has credited her own relationship with her brother as an inspiration for the show's close emotional bonds between characters.

In 2019, Sugar married her boyfriend Ian Jones-Quartey. They had been romantically involved since 2008. In 2020, Sugar served as the narrator in a video criticizing the poor living conditions of detainees held by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In both 2020 and 2021, Sugar and her husband worked on a series of public service announcements with anti-racist messages. The announcements were released through Cartoon Network's YouTube channel.

In late 2021, Sugar served as an uncredited singer for a Christmas special based on the animated series "Amphibia". She had written the lyrics for her own music number. Her involvement was commented on in a press release. By 2022, Sugar is 34-years-old and shows no signs of retiring. She has not announced further plans for her career.

Stephen McDannell Hillenburg is the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants (1999), Nickelodeon's highest-rated cartoons for children and a staple of American television. He was born on August 21, 1961 in Fort Sill, a United States Army post in Lawton, Oklahoma, to Nancy (Dufour) Hillenburg and Kelly Neugent Hillenburg Jr.

Raised in Anaheim, California, he became fascinated with marine biology as a child and later developed an interest in art. He started his professional career in 1984 teaching marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute. He wrote 'The Intertidal Zone', a comic book about tide-pool animals which he used to educate his students.

In 1989, two years after leaving teaching, Hillenburg enrolled at the California Institute of the Arts to pursue a career in animation. He was later offered a job on the Nickelodeon animated television series Rocko's Modern Life (1993), after his success with short films The Green Beret (1992) and Wormholes (1992), which he created while studying animation.

In 1994, Hillenburg began developing The Intertidal Zone characters and concepts for what would become SpongeBob SquarePants. The show premiered in 1999 and has aired since then. He also directed The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), which he originally intended to be the series finale. However, Nickelodeon wanted to produce more episodes, so Hillenburg resigned as the showrunner. He went back to making short films, with Hollywood Blvd, USA (2014).

In 2015, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) was released; It marked Hillenburg's return to the franchise, after he co-wrote the story and acted as an executive producer on the project.

Aside from two Emmy Awards and six Annie Awards for SpongeBob SquarePants, Hillenburg also received an accolade from Heal the Bay for his efforts on elevating marine life awareness, as well as the Television Animation Award from the National Cartoonists Society. Despite all this, he was involved in public controversies, including one that centered on speculation over the SpongeBob character's intended sexual orientation.

Hillenburg was diagnosed in 2017 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He stated that he would continue to work on his show for as long as possible. He died at age 57 on November 26, 2018 in San Marino, California, a year and a half after his diagnosis.

Genndy Tartakovsky was born and raised in Moscow, USSR. He and his family moved to Chicago, IL when he was 7 years old, after his father defected to the US. His interest in comic books and animation led him to study animation at CalArts in Los Angeles. While he was there he produced two student films, one of which was the basis of his series Dexter's Laboratory (1996). The character of Dee-Dee was inspired by his older brother Alex, who would often spoil younger brother Genndy's plans (as Dee-Dee does to Dexter). His first long form directing work was for the TV movie of the series, Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip (1999). He also directed animation for his collaborator Craig McCracken on The Powerpuff Girls (1998) and The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002).

His most celebrated work was the epic animated series Samurai Jack (2001), featuring a time-traveling samurai in a battle of good vs. evil. He stopped work on the series to produce Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) as a direct story tie-in to the beginning of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). He then directed animation for the Adult Swim pilot Korgoth of Barbaria (2006). Plans were up in the air for over a decade for a possible movie conclusion to Samurai Jack, as well as directing a sequel to The Dark Crystal (1982). He created storyboards for the action-packed opening of Iron Man 2 (2010) during this time period.

Genndy produced another dynamic TV series Sym-Bionic Titan (2010), before finally landing his first feature on Hotel Transylvania (2012), which would involve taking over a tumultuous production and incorporating 2D techniques to 3D animation. Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) was the first film for which he had creative control over the entire production, although it was still in the style developed during the first film. In 2017, he finally returned to direct a darker season of Samurai Jack to conclude the story on Adult Swim. He is currently directing Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018).

John Dilworth was born on 14 February 1963 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for The Dirdy Birdy (1994), The Chicken from Outer Space (1996) and Courage the Cowardly Dog (1999).

Joe Murray was born on 3 May 1961 in San Jose, California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Rocko's Modern Life (1993), Camp Lazlo! (2005) and Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling (2019). He has been married to Carol Wyatt since May 2011. They have two children. He was previously married to Aleide Daley and Diane Murray.

Mo Willems was born on 11 February 1968 in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Sheep in the Big City (2000), Sesame Street (1969) and Caillou the Comedy World Series! (2024). He has been married to Cheryl Willems since 27 September 1997. They have one child.

Tim Schafer was born on 26 July 1967. He is a writer and director, known for Psychonauts 2 (2021), Day of the Tentacle (1993) and Brütal Legend (2009). He is married to Rachael Schafer. They have one child.

Born in 1982 in San Antonio, Texas, Ward, the youngest of 3 brothers, was raised by his mother Bettie Ward, an artist and daughter of a Texas oil rancher. He never met his father. He would often draw flipbooks Andy comic books with his friend Alex "the Logdog" Coates.

Ward attended CalArts, where he became friends with fellow animators J.G. Quintel of Regular Show and Alex Hirsch of Gravity Falls. They later worked on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack together. In 2002, he created a comic strip called Bueno the Bear, but later withdrew publication the following year. He created a short film called Barrista with the character and uses the name for his social media profiles to this day.

In 2008, he made a pilot for Adventure Time for Nickelodeon, but it was rejected. Cartoon Network picked it up a year later and it premiered in 2010.

Craig Bartlett was born on 18 October 1956 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Dinosaur Train (2009), Hey Arnold! (1996) and Rugrats (1991). He was previously married to Lisa Groening.

Peter Hannan is an artist and writer. He is the creator and executive producer of the Nickelodeon animated series, CatDog, overseeing all aspects (writing, storyboarding, character design, art direction, and post-production) of sixty-five half hours, including several holiday specials. Since most of the shows are made up of 11-minute episodes, this amounts to one hundred and twenty-something stories and at least one fistfight. He produced Fetch, the CatDog theatrical short subject for The Rugrats Movie as well as a ninety-minute television movie, CatDog and the Great Parent Mystery.

He has several new film and television projects in development (for little kids, big kids, and grown-ups), and is working behind the scenes or in collaboration with a variety of talented cohorts, writing show bibles, scripts, and treatments, creating/designing characters, art directing, and songwriting.

He is the author and illustrator of The Sillyville Saga, a series of children's books and a veritable manifesto of absurdity: Sillyville or Bust, Escape from Camp Wannabarf, School After Dark: Lessons in Lunacy, and The Battle of Sillyville: Live Silly or Die! He also wrote and illustrated stories for the anthologies Speak! Children's Illustrators Brag About Their Dogs and Purr! Children's Illustrators Brag About Their Cats. He is currently working on series of middle-grade illustrated chapter books which feature a staggering team of super-avenging nincompoops. He really wants this to be a runaway best-selling series because he feels that sitting on the beach, or perhaps in the woods, scribbling funny words and silly pictures while sipping refreshing beverages would be a very civilized way to live. He is also writing and illustrating several picture books and working on a book intended for adults. He has written and illustrated a number of amusing newspaper and magazine pieces with titles like The Incredible Shrinking Christmas, Death of Yuppie, Mike Royko Moves to the Suburbs, and The Good, the Bad, and the Irish.

Hannan has had a life-long interest in, some might say addiction to, singing and songwriting. He wrote the CatDog theme song, which he also sings. He wrote many other songs for the series, but mercifully left the singing to his remarkable cast. The most hilarious coup of his songwriting career was convincing Oscar-winning multi-hyphenate Billy Bob Thornton and Ally McBeal/Broadway star Jane Krakowski to sing two perfectly ridiculous songs (as two characters each) for CatDog and the Great Parent Mystery. Five Hannan CatDog songs are included on "The Newest Nicktoons" and several other Nickelodeon collections released on Kid Rhino.

He has done illustrations for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, and many other newspapers, magazines, and advertising media. His single-panel cartoons (The Adventures of a Huge Mouth) have appeared in Harper's Magazine, Esquire Magazine, The Chicago Reader and many other publications. A book of his cartoons was published by Chicago Review Press and he created a line of greeting cards for Paper Moon Graphics. He is currently working on a series of drawings entitled My Own Private Hollywood, a harrowing look at the funny business of the business. His paintings, drawings, illustrations, and cartoons have been included in numerous exhibitions.

Peter Hannan was born and raised in upstate New York. He is a proud victim of small-town public and parochial education and a graduate of tiny and notorious Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, famous as the alma mater of David Mamet. Peter Hannan has never even met Mr. Mamet. Mr. Hannan lives in southern California with his wonderful wife (who he met when he was six and she must have been, like, negative ten or something), two fabulous kids, and two dogs, one of whom is certifiably nuts, but only when the doorbell rings.

Arlene Klasky is an animator, graphic designer, and television producer from Omaha, Nebraska. She is of Polish-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent. She co-founded the animation studio Klasky Csupo (1982-) with Gábor Csupó, who was at that time married to her.

During the 1980s, Klasky and her studio provided logos for television series, and produced music videos for bands such as the Beastie Boys. They also produced animated shorts for "Sesame Street". However, their main claim to fame was producing animated shorts about the Simpsons family for "The Tracey Ullman Show".

By 1989, Klasky was largely preoccupied with raising her two infant sons. When the television networks Nickelodeon asked her to pitch ideas for a new animated television series, she initially thought that she had no ideas to offer. She instead took inspiration from her sons to create a series about infants that could talk. Nickelodeon green-lighted the project, which was developed into the long-running series "Rugrats" (1991-2004).

During the 1990s and early 2000s, her studio produced several other series for Nickelodeon. Klasky co-produced the spin-off films "The Rugrats Movie" (1998) and "Rugrats in Paris: The Movie" (2000), which performed well at the box office. She was also credited as a co-creator for the sequel series "All Grown Up!" (2003-2008), which featured the infants of "Rugrats" having aged to their adolescence.

In 2006, Nickelodeon decided to end its partnership with Klasky Csupo, though episodes of "All Grown Up!" were still being broadcast. Having lost its main client, the studio went into decline and. For the next decade or so, its main products were a digital comic book and a web series.

In 2018, Klasky Csupo started work on a reboot series of the "Rugrats", with Klasky serving as an executive producer. The new series debuted in 2021, and used CGI animation instead of the traditional animation of its predecessor. As of 2022, Klasky is 72-years-old and continues to lead her animation studio.

Gábor Csupó is a Hungarian animator, film director, and producer. He has had a long career, but he is better known as the co-founder of animation studio Klasky-Csupo, Inc., a graphic design and animation studio based in Hollywood. The other major co-founder was his business partner and wife Arlene Klasky.

Gábor Csupó was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1952. At the time the country was known as the Hungarian People's Republic, a so-called "socialist republic" which served as a satellite state of the Soviet Union. He grew up during the Cold War (1947-1991). He started his animation career c. 1971, working as an animator for the animation studio Pannonia Film Studio. A state-financed company, Pannonia had a virtual monopoly in the Hungarian animation market. Csupó left the company and Hungary itself in 1975, migrating to Western Europe in search of better career opportunities.

While working in Sweden, Gábor Csupó met Arlene Klasky, an expatriate American animator who was a few years older than him. They started a relationship and were married to each other in 1979. Csupó came to the United States with her. He was able to find work as an animator at an American animation studio called Hanna-Barbera, which specialized on animated series for television. His relatively few credits with the company included the series "Casper and the Angels" (1979), "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" (1979-1980), and "The World's Greatest Super Friends" (1979-1980). All were short-lived works based on existing properties. None lasted more than 16 episodes.

In 1980, Gábor Csupó left Hanna-Barbera to start their own company with his wife Arlene Klasky their nephew Attila Csupó called Klasky-Csupo, Inc., a graphic design and animation studio based in Hollywood. Due to their lack of funds, the company's initial offices were just a spare room in its founders' apartment. For much of the 1980's, the company mainly worked on logo designs, feature film trailers, television show titles, and promos for various clients. The company acquired a reputation for creativity and originality, which allowed its founders to hire more personnel and expand its offices.

Csupo's first major career break came in 1987. James L. Brooks, founder of Gracie Films, was producing a new television show, "The Tracey Ullman Show" (1987-1990). It would include an animated segment featuring the Simpsons family, based on an idea by Matt Groening. Brooks needed an animation studio to handle production of the animation and hired Klasky Csupo to be that studio.

Csupo's ideas about the design of the Simpsons' characters were considered unorthodox. He and colorist Gyorgyi Peluce came up with the idea that all the characters would have yellow skin, and female character Marge Simpson would have blue hair. They felt that this would give the series a unique look. Gracie Films executives reportedly disliked the idea, but Groening liked it and convinced the others. The Simpsons caught on, and received their own spin-off series, called "The Simpsons" (1989-). Klasky Csupo served as the main company behind the series' animation for the first two seasons.

"The Simpsons" series had a larger cast of characters than the original short episodes for the "Ullman Show". The design of a supporting character called Dr. Nicholas "Dr. Nick" Riviera, an inept quack, was reportedly based on Csupo's own appearance. As the series progressed, Csupo had arguments with the executives of Gracie Film, over budgets and creative decisions. This resulted in Gracie deciding to terminate its relationship with Klasky Csupo in 1992, and to start a business relationship with rival animation studio Film Roman. Loosing its cash-cow series, Klasky Csupo was forced to fire much of its personnel.

The downturn in Klasky Csupo's fate was only temporary. In 1991, cable network Nickelodeon (which previously focused on live-action shows) wanted to add animated series to its line-up. Klasky Csupo's managed to convince the network to sign a contract about an original animation series called "Rugrats" (1991-2004). Starting out as an average television show, it turned to be a major commercial success. Production continued on-and-off for more than a decade, and the series received spin-off films and sequel series.

For most of the 1990s and the early 2000s, Klasky Csupo was a high-profile animation studio, with several television series in production. Gabor Csupo is credited as one of the main creators of "Rugrats", "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters" (1994-1997), "Santo Bugito" (1995-1996), "The Wild Thornberrys" (1998-2004), "Rocket Power" (1999-2004), "All Grown Up" (2003-2008), and "Rugrats Pre-School Daze" (2005). The company also had series by other creators. They worked with various networks, but the company's main customer was always Nickelodeon.

In 2006, Nickelodeon terminated its business relationship with Klasky Csupo, apparently due to its belief that the animation studio was producing work in an outdated style. The company went dormant for a number of years, though it has never been declared defunct. Gabor Csupo, on the other hand, was hired as the director of a live-action film: "Bridge to Terabithia" (2007). It was a relatively low-budget film with a cast consisting mainly of child actors, but tuned out be a minor box office hit (earning about 137 million dollars at the worldwide box office). The film in part served as a star vehicle for female lead AnnaSophia Robb, who was chosen for the role by Csupo himself.

Csupo returned to directing with the adult animated film "Immigrants" (2008). It featured two immigrants, one Hungarian and one Russian, getting in comical misadventures in modern day Los Angeles. Intended to become the start of a new franchise, the film failed to achieve much success.

Csupo next directed another live-action film, the fantasy film "The Secret of Moonacre" (2009). An adaptation of the novel "The Little White Horse" (1946) by Elizabeth Goudge, the film received only a limited release in a hand full of countries. The main star of the film was teenage actress Dakota Blue Richards, relatively popular in her native United Kingdom.

Csupo is living is semi-retirement in Hawaii for most of the 2010s, though he is reputedly attached to new projects and may yet make a comeback.

Writer/director/producer Paul Germain makes character-driven family comedies that are popular worldwide and across generations.

A native Angeleno, Paul started out at Gracie Films with James L. Brooks, working as a PA on "Terms of Endearment" and associate producer on the film "Say Anything" and the variety series "The Tracey Ullman Show."

Collaborating with producer Jeffrey Townsend, Paul developed and cast the one-minute cartoons that became "The Simpsons." Paul co-wrote the shorts with Matt Groening, directed the voice actors, hired Klasky-Csupo Studios to execute the animation, and produced all the original short cartoons, supervising every aspect of production. When "The Simpsons" went to series, Paul co-produced the first few episodes before moving to Klasky-Csupo himself.

While working on "The Simpsons," Paul pioneered the radio-play approach in TV animation. Where standard cartoon productions would record line readings from one actor at a time in isolation, Paul's innovation was to bring the cast together in the booth to perform and record interactively. He'd then edit the voice tracks into a "radio show" before animation began, a method that emphasizes the actors' performances over visual gags, and creates liveliness and immediacy. This approach calls for flexibility from animators, who draw and time their visual world to the preexisting voices. All of Paul's productions are designed around this story-based animation process.

At K-C studios Paul created "Rugrats" with Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo when his own first child, Tommy, was a year old. In addition to creating the characters, writing and producing the pilot, and casting and directing the actors, Paul oversaw all scripts, storyboards and soundtracks and was creative producer and show runner for the original 65 half-hours of the classic series. "Rugrats" earned Paul three Emmys. It still airs on Nickelodeon and remains one of the most popular shows of all time.

After "Rugrats," Paul and partner Joe Ansolabehere moved to Disney, where they created "Recess" for ABC. After its 1997 premier, "Recess" quickly became the network's most popular Saturday-morning show. Paul and Joe wrote, directed, and executive-produced 65 half hours of "Recess," to this day a mainstay on The Disney Channel and Disney outlets around the world. Seeing the success of the series, Disney asked for a feature and "RECESS: SCHOOL'S OUT" was released in theaters in 2001.

Some of Paul's other shows include "Lloyd In Space" (ABC and The Disney Channel,) and "Beethoven" (CBS.) Paul and Joe wrote the 2010 "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue" for Disney, and a "Shrek" Halloween special for Dreamworks. Next the two executive-produced the new "Pound Puppies" series, writing and developing original characters for Hasbro Studios and The HUB. The series enjoyed a successful run through 2014, and was recently picked as "a kids show worth streaming" by The New Yorker for its smart appeal to both kids and parents.

As of Spring 2018, Paul is executive producer on a major animated series not yet announced, and Paul and Joe are signed to exec-produce the adaptation of a subversive coming-of-age novel as a live action multi-season series.

Dave Wasson was born on 11 September 1968 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Cuphead Show! (2022), Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2012) and Oh Yeah! Cartoons (1998).

Tom Warburton is the creator of Cartoon Network's original series Codename: Kids Next Door. Mr. Warburton has previously served as a director for Cartoon Network's Sheep in the Big City, lead character designer for Disney's Pepper Ann, and spent five years at commercial studio J.J. Sedelmaier Productions where he served as production designer on MTV's Beavis and Butthead, director on new episodes of Schoolhouse Rock and Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse. His first picture book 1000 Times No was released in 2009. Lately Mr. Warburton has been at Disney where he's served as creative director on Fish Hooks and co-exec producer of The 7D!

Van Partible was born on 13 December 1971 in Manila, Philippines. He is a writer and director, known for Johnny Bravo (1997), The Amazon Women (1997) and Shorty McShorts' Shorts (2006).

Canadian-born cartoon cartoonist Kricfalusi began his career by working on low end Saturday morning cartoons like The Jetsons (1962) revival and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972). In 1987, Kricfalusi's mentor, Ralph Bakshi, saved him by hiring him as supervising director on his show Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (1987). The show was canceled after a scene where Mighty Mouse sniffed a flower to get superpowers and some people thought he was using cocaine. Soon afterwards, Nickelodeon bought his twisted brainchild The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991). But after continuous battles over script content and control, he was fired from his own show in 1992. After he was fired, he furthered his fight for creative freedom by founding a website where he sold dolls of his other characters. He then hired some of his old Ren and Stimpy co-workers and produced the first 'made for the web' cartoon series The Goddamn George Liquor Program (1997). He also created and produced "Weekend Pussy Hunt" another 'made for the web' series. Other work includes directing a Yogi Bear short for Cartoon Network, directing a music video for Björk. And in 2001 he returned to TV with the Saturday morning cartoon for Fox Kids called The Ripping Friends (2001), which he created and produced. By 2019, he released the cartoon by Kickstarter Cans Without Labels (2019).

Jhonen Vasquez was born and raised on San Jose's East Side. He graduated from Mount Pleasant High in 1992 and was a one-time film student at De Anza College. Even though he has little formal artistic training, he entered the world of alternative comics, as the writer/creator/artist of such titles as "SQUEE!" and "Johnny, The Homicidal Maniac", both published by Slave Labor Graphics. "SQUEE!" was nominated for several Eisner Awards, the comic industry's equivalent of the Oscars.

Rob Renzetti is an American animator, writer and director who is widely known for creating the cult classic teen science fiction Nicktoon My Life as a Teenage Robot, starring Janice Kawaye, Candi Milo and Eartha Kitt. It is reminiscent of 1940s cartoons. He also worked on episodes of Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, The Powerpuff Girls, Gravity Falls and Kid Cosmic. He also worked on a series of pilots called Mina and the Count before he scrapped the idea in favor of My Life as a Teenage Robot.

Maxwell Atoms is an American animator, voice actor and writer known for creating Cartoon Network's The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. He is also the creator of CN's Evil Con Carne and Underfist, the Executive Producer and Supervising Director of Disney's Fish Hooks, Executive Producer of WB's Bunnicula, and the writer and director of several Scooby-Doo! DTV movies.

He has four cats.

Scott Braden Cawthon, also known as "Animdude", is an American video game developer, author, and philanthropist best known for developing the 2014 survival horror video game Five Nights at Freddy's, which has since expanded into one of the best-selling media franchises in history, and for founding the video game development company ScottGames in 2019.