Jump to content

Matt Braly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 108.5.153.197 (talk) at 05:39, 11 November 2022 (Matt Braly left Disney months ago according to a Twitter post.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Matt Braly
Born
Matthew Benjakarn Braly

(1988-11-08) November 8, 1988 (age 35)
Sacramento, California, U.S.
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts
Occupations
  • Animator
  • storyboard artist
  • director
  • writer
  • producer
Years active2010–present
Employers
Known forAmphibia
SpouseKatherine Bedrosian
MotherOn Braly

Matthew Benjakarn Braly (/ˈbrɑːli/ BRAH-lee; born November 8, 1988) is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, writer, and producer. He is best known as the creator and executive producer of the Disney Channel animated series Amphibia (TV series).[1] He also worked as a director on Gravity Falls and for some episodes of Big City Greens.

Career

Braly was inspired to pursue a career in animation after a "career day" at high school, where a Pixar animator drew an image of Lumiere from Disney's Beauty and the Beast while talking about working on animation for a living,[2] and started his career studying at the CalArts institute. After graduating, he joined DreamWorks Animation, where he worked as an storyboard artist in the computer-animated film Turbo (2013).[3]

While working on Turbo, Braly and several other DreamWorks Animation storyboard artists went to visit Alex Hirsch, who was working on a show titled Gravity Falls (2012–16) for Disney Television Animation.[3] Hirsch also went to CalArts and, while they never studied together, Braly liked his student films.[3] During the visit, Hirsch pitched Gravity Falls to Braly.[3]

Fascinated by the concept and how Hirsch wanted it to be serialized program, Braly did a test to work on the show, after which he was hired, serving as a storyboard artist and director for the series.[3] Braly credited Hirsch as the one who "taught [him] so much about storytelling, about developing characters and developing a world", as well as the one who inspired him to create his own show.[3] The series premiered on June 15, 2012, and ended on February 15, 2016.[4] In 2016, Braly won an Annie Award for directing the Gravity Falls episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery".[5] Braly also served as an in-house key animator for the closing scene for the episode "Not What He Seems".[6]

After directing on Big City Greens,[3][7] Braly developed a show titled Amphibia, for Disney.[8] The show centers on the adventures of a Thai-American girl named Anne Boonchuy in the titular frog-populated world.[8] The show is based on Braly's childhood trips to Bangkok, Thailand, where he felt like an outsider but ultimately ended up not wanting to leave.[9] He also drew inspiration from video games such as The Legend of Zelda and Chrono Trigger.[10] Braly, who is Thai-American himself, made the choice of making the lead character Thai-American due to a wish to creating a Thai character, as there were few Thai lead characters in television series when he was a kid.[11] The series aired for three seasons of 58 episodes from June 17, 2019, to May 14, 2022. He considers the series finale "The Hardest Thing" to be his favorite episode.[12]

Personal life

Braly is of Thai descent. His mother, On Braly, provided the voice of Mrs. Boonchuy on Amphibia.[13] He is currently married to software engineer, Kathrine Bedrosian.[14]

As a kid, Braly used to watch films such as Mortal Kombat (1995) due to them being filmed in Thailand, as there was no Thai representation on TV.[11] He also used to draw characters from franchises like Mortal Kombat and Sonic the Hedgehog.[2] Braly is a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and was inspired by the opening sequence in the first episode of the anime Sonic X for the climax of the Amphibia episode "True Colors".[2] Similarly, he was inspired by several horror films for the episode "The Shut-In" due to being a horror fan.[2] He is also a fan of the Disney series Gargoyles and the film The Princess and the Frog; cast members from both productions have appeared through Amphibia.[15] Both Braly and his wife are fans of RuPaul's Drag Race; RuPaul himself had a recurring role in season 3 of Amphibia.[16]

Filmography

Films

Year Title Storyboard
artist		 Others Role Notes
2012 Adam and Dog No Yes Assistant animator
Short film
2013 Turbo Yes No
2021 The Mitchells vs. the Machines[17] Yes No Uncredited

Television

Year Title Producer Writer Storyboard
artist		 Director Actor Others Role Notes
2012–16 Gravity Falls No No Yes Yes No Yes 8 episodes
Key animator[a]
2014 Steven Universe No Yes Yes No No No Episode: "Lars and the Cool Kids"
2017 Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer No No Yes No No No Storyboard revisionist
Episodes: "Lab Friends... Forever?" and "Surviving Billy"
DuckTales No No No No No Yes Additional character designer
Episode: "Woo-oo!"
2018 Big City Greens No Yes Yes Yes No No 7 episodes
2019–22 Amphibia Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Chuck
Newtopian gatekeeper[18]
The Seamstress[18]
Additional voices		 Creator and executive producer

Nominations and awards

Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref
2016 43rd Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production Gravity Falls (for "Northwest Mansion Mystery") Won [5]
2021 Daytime Emmys Outstanding Children's Animated Series Amphibia Nominated [19]
2022 GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Kids and Family Programming Amphibia Nominated [20]

Notes

  1. ^ Episode "Not What He Seems" only

References

  1. ^ Radulovic, Petrana (August 14, 2020). "The Disney channel series inspired by Zelda finally gets a retro-game reimagining". Polygon. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d Sit Down and Think With Amphibia Creator Matt Braly, retrieved August 3, 2022
  3. ^ a b c d e f g WONDERS OF ANIMATION: TALKING TO MATT BRALY OF AMPHIBIA
  4. ^ Hughes, William (November 20, 2015). "Gravity Falls is ending". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "43RD ANNUAL ANNIE AWARDS". AnnieAwards.org. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  6. ^ Animation I did from the last scene of Not What He Seems. Keys by Matt Braly. Woo
  7. ^ AMPHIBIA Q&A with Matt Braly
  8. ^ a b Petski, Denise. "Disney Channel Launching Toon Series The Owl House and The Owl House, Renews Star vs. the Forces of Evil for Season 4". Deadline.com. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  9. ^ Matt Braly, creador de The Owl House Gravity Falls: “Siempre quise crear mi propia fantasía” (In Spanish)
  10. ^ Disney's The Owl House, inspired by Zelda, gets a retro 8-bit theme song opening
  11. ^ a b "'Amphibia' creator wants kids to feel seen with his Thai American heroine". Los Angeles Times. June 14, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  12. ^ @Radrappy (May 12, 2022). "Really though, everyone who has touched the show up until this point has contributed to this final story. It's hon…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ^ Twitter https://twitter.com/radrappy/status/1149478211601874949. Retrieved August 3, 2022. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ^ "r/amphibia - Comment by u/Matt_Braly on "I'm Matt Braly, creator and executive producer of Amphibia - Ask me anything!!!"". reddit. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  15. ^ Cap, Damon (June 11, 2019). "Talking Amphibia On Disney Channel With Matt Braly – Exclusive". BSCkids. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  16. ^ "Amphibia's Matt Braly Talks Fandom, Season 3, and the End of the Show". comicbook.com. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  17. ^ Fun fact: I paid genius storyboard artists and showrunners Dana Terrace and @Radrappy out of my own pocket. (I paid @radrappy with a PS4!) to help sell the movie and this is one of Dana's shots that made it into the final movie! Jenny Li and Patrick Mueller animated this shot
  18. ^ a b characters I have voiced on #amphibia thus far
  19. ^ "Daytime Emmy Awards" (PDF). Deadline. June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  20. ^ GLAAD Media Awards Nominations: HBO/HBO Max Leads With 19; Netflix Close Behind
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Matt_Braly&oldid=1121226345"