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Alex Hirsch

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Alex Hirsch
Hirsch at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2013
Born
Alexander Robert Hirsch

(1985-06-18) June 18, 1985 (age 39)
Piedmont, California, U.S.
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts (BFA)
Occupations
  • Voice actor
  • animator
  • writer
  • producer
Years active2008–present
Known forGravity Falls

Alexander Robert Hirsch[1] (born June 18, 1985) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, storyboard artist, and producer. He is the creator of the Disney Channel series Gravity Falls, for which he provided the voices of Grunkle Stan, Soos, and Bill Cipher, among others. He also earned BAFTA and Annie Awards for the series. In 2016, Hirsch co-authored Gravity Falls: Journal 3 which debuted as a No. 1 New York Times Best Seller[2] and remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for forty-seven weeks.[3] In 2018, Hirsch wrote Gravity Falls: Lost Legends.

Early life and education

Hirsch was born in Piedmont, California, on June 18, 1985. He has a twin sister named Ariel.[4] His father is Jewish, and he was raised agnostic, celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah.[5] Between the ages of 9 and 13, Hirsch and his twin sister would go stay with their great-aunt (or "graunty") Lois, at her cabin in the woods during the summer. These experiences later served as Hirsch's inspiration for Gravity Falls.[6] He graduated from Piedmont High School where, as a junior, he won the school's annual Bird Calling Contest in 2002[7][8] and appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.[9]

Hirsch went on to attend the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)[10] where he created a variety of projects and short films including his senior film, Off The Wall, which combined animation and live action and "Cuddle Bee Hugs N'Such" with Adrian Molina, which was chosen by Nicktoons Network for their original series Shorts in a Bunch. He also spent the summer of 2006 working in Portland, Oregon on a later-scrapped animated film for Laika.[11] He graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.[12]

Career

Hirsch's first job after graduating from CalArts was as a writer and storyboard artist for The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack on Cartoon Network where he worked alongside fellow CalArts alumni, J. G. Quintel, Pendleton Ward (who was his writing partner on the show), and Patrick McHale.[13][14] He would go on to develop the pilot for the Disney Channel series, Fish Hooks along with Maxwell Atoms and future Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland.[11][12][15]

In 2012, Hirsch created the series Gravity Falls for the Disney Channel. The show, set in the fictional town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, premiered in June 2012[16] with a voice cast including Jason Ritter, Kristen Schaal, and Hirsch himself.[11] Over the course of the series, he provided the voices of Grunkle Stan, Soos,[12] Old Man McGucket, Bill Cipher, and many other minor characters.[17] The show was moved to Disney XD in 2014.[10] It would go on to win a BAFTA Children's Award[18] and an Annie Award in 2015[19] and was nominated for several other awards (including a Peabody Award in 2016).[20][21] Hirsch ended Gravity Falls in February 2016 to pursue other projects.[22]

In July 2016, Hirsch threw a global treasure hunt[23] (known as "Cipher Hunt") for Gravity Falls fans with clues hidden throughout the world including in the United States, Japan, and Russia. The goal of the hunt was to find a statue of the Gravity Falls character, Bill Cipher. After two weeks, fans of the show discovered the statue in Reedsport, Oregon.[24][25] The hunt coincided with the release of Hirsch's tie-in book, Gravity Falls: Journal 3, which was released on July 26, 2016[26] and eventually became a No. 1 New York Times Best Seller[2] and appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for nearly a year.[3] A special edition of the book was released on June 13, 2017, containing features that were not included in the regular edition of the book.[27]

In February 2018, Hirsch used his Twitter account to announce an official Gravity Falls graphic novel, through a series of puzzle pieces that he would release throughout the day.[28] Put together the puzzle pieces revealed the cover of Gravity Falls: Lost Legends; 4 All-New Adventures! which was written by Hirsch was released on July 24, 2018.[29]

Outside of Gravity Falls, Hirsch has done voice work for a number of projects including Phineas and Ferb,[30] Rick and Morty, and as the announcer for the Chelsea Peretti special, One of the Greats.[31] In August 2016, it was announced that Hirsch was in negotiations to co-write the live-action Pokémon film, Detective Pikachu, alongside Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel writer Nicole Perlman.[32][33] Hirsch was a story contributor to Sony's animated Spider-Man film,[34] Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).[35]

On August 27, 2018, Hirsch signed a deal with American streaming company Netflix for a multi-year deal, according to Variety.[36] Alex is currently in development on an unknown adult animated series for the company that remains NDA protected as of 2022 with no known release or announcement date as of yet.[citation needed]

Hirsch also co-executive produced the series Inside Job alongside creator and show-runner Shion Takeuchi.[37] The first half of the first season premiered on October 22, 2021, with the second half releasing in November 18, 2022 with a second season being order on June 8, 2022.[38] However on January 8, 2023, Takeuchi announced that the series was cancelled, which a representative from Netflix confirmed.[39][40][41]

Hirsch is the voice of King, Hooty, and additional voices in the Disney Channel animated series The Owl House, created by Dana Terrace. The show premiered on January 10, 2020.[42]

Personal life

Gravity Falls was inspired by Hirsch's own childhood experiences and his relationship with his own twin sister, Ariel Hirsch, growing up during their summer vacations.[43] He placed many of his real-life experiences in the show, such as living in Piedmont and trick-or-treating with his sister as kids.[44] Dipper Pines, one of the lead characters of Gravity Falls, is based on Hirsch's memory of how it felt to be a kid. Hirsch described himself as "that neurotic kid who would carry 16 disposable cameras everywhere I went."[43] The character Mabel Pines was inspired by Ariel.[45] According to Hirsch, Ariel "really did wear wacky sweaters and have a different ridiculous crush, every week" in a similar fashion to Mabel.[43] In the series Mabel acquires a pet pig, just like Ariel had always wanted when she was a child.[46] The character of Grunkle Stan was inspired by Hirsch's grandfather Stan, who according to him "was a guy that told tall tales and would frequently mess with us to get a rise out of us."[43]

From 2015 to sometime before April 2022, Hirsch was in a relationship with The Owl House creator Dana Terrace.[47][48][49][50] Hirsch was one of the few creative members to call out the negative aspects of The Walt Disney Company, with calling out the hypocrisy and poor handling of LGBTQ+ content across the company by either censoring or removing said content to appeal to conservative families and countries, lack of quality care and lack of the merchandise for Disney Television Animation productions from Disney Consumer Products and lack of the creative freedom with the creative members at Disney's multiple animation studios at the company.[51]

In August 2020, Hirsch praised The Owl House for its nonheterosexual characters, stating that he had been prohibited from incorporating any explicit nonheterosexual elements into Gravity Falls.[48][52][53]

In November 2020, Hirsch prank-called Rudy Giuliani's voter fraud hotline set up by the Donald Trump campaign, by using the voices of multiple Gravity Falls characters to report Hamburglar-esque ballot theft.[54][55][56]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Producer Screenwriter Actor Role Notes
2002 Alfred Hitchcluck Presents School House Flock. A Short by Alex Hirsch.[citation needed] Yes Yes Yes Yes Janitor (voice) Short film

parody of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Schoolhouse Rock!

2005 On a Roll[citation needed] Yes Yes Yes Yes Jumberjack (voice) Short film
2006 CuddleBee Hugs 'n' Such[citation needed] Yes Yes Yes No Short film
Imaginary Friend[citation needed] Yes Yes Yes Yes Wally Short film
2007 Off the Wall[citation needed] Yes Yes Yes Yes Guy eating food Short film
2018 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse[35] No No Uncredited No Story Contributor
2019 The Angry Birds Movie 2 No No No Yes Steve Eagle (voice)
2021 The Mitchells vs. the Machines No No No Yes Dirk (voice) Story Consultant

Television

Year Title Creator Executive Producer Screenwriter Actor Role Notes
2002 Late Show with David Letterman[9] No No No No Guest appearance as winner of
Piedmont High School's Birdcaller Competition
Episode aired on June 19, 2002
2008–2009 The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack No No Yes No Also storyboard artist
2010–2014 Fish Hooks No No Yes Yes Clamantha
Additional voices		 Also creative consultant, storyboard artist and co-developer
2012–2016 Gravity Falls Yes Yes Yes Yes Grunkle Stan
Soos Ramirez
Old Man McGucket
Bill Cipher
Additional voices
2013 Phineas and Ferb No No No Yes Officer Concord the Juice Time Juice Box Flavor Cop Episode: "Terrifying Tri-State Trilogy of Terror"
2015 Rick and Morty No No No Yes Toby Matthews Episode: "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez"
2016 Wander Over Yonder No No No Yes Old Man
Soosy Du
Additional voices		 Episode: "The Cartoon"
2018 Star vs. the Forces of Evil No No No Yes Ben Fotino Episode: "Booth Buddies"
We Bare Bears No No No Yes Internet Troll Episode: "Charlie's Halloween Thing 2"
2019 Big City Greens No No No Yes Wyatt Episode: "Park Pandemonium"
2020–present The Owl House No No No Yes King
Hooty
Additional voices		 Also creative consultant
2020 Amphibia No No No Yes The Curator
Frog Soos		 Episode: "Wax Museum"
Special thanks, Episode: "The Hardest Thing"
2021 Kid Cosmic No No Story No 2 episodes
The Simpsons No No No Yes Bill Cipher Episode: "Bart's in Jail!"
2021–2022 Inside Job No Yes Yes Yes Grassy Noel Atkinson
Additional voices
TBA Untitled Alex Hirsch Project Yes — — — Confirmed series in development at Netflix[citation needed]

Video games

Year Title Role
2014 Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes Additional voices
2015 Disney Infinity 3.0 Additional voices[57]
2022 The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe New Content announcer

Web

Year Title Role Notes
2022 Homestar Runner: Strong Bad Emails Himself Episode: "Parenting"

Bibliography

Year Title Original publisher ISBN Notes
2016 Gravity Falls: Journal 3 Disney Press ISBN 9781484746691 Co-written with Rob Renzetti
No. 1 New York Times Best Seller[2][3]
A special edition was released on June 13, 2017
2018 Gravity Falls: Lost Legends ISBN 1368021425
ISBN 978-1368021425 		A Barnes and Noble exclusive edition with 16 additional pages of production art was also released.[58]

Nominations and awards

Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref.
2015 42nd Annie Awards Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children's Audience Gravity Falls Won [19]
20th British Academy Children's Awards Best International Series [18]
2016 43rd Annie Awards Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children's Audience Nominated [21]
Best Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production Alex Hirsch [21]
75th Annual Peabody Awards Excellence in Children's/Youth Programming Gravity Falls [20]
2017 44th Annie Awards Best Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production Alex Hirsch [59]

References

  1. ^ According to the State of California. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. Searchable at http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/39461 Archived April 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
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  3. ^ a b c "Children's Middle Grade Hardcover". New York Times. January 20, 2018. Archived from the original on December 26, 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
  4. ^ Alex Hirsch [@_AlexHirsch] (September 27, 2014). "My twin sister Ariel found her lost notebook from grade school" (Tweet). Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Twitter.
  5. ^ Alex Hirsch [@_AlexHirsch] (March 21, 2015). "My sis & I are ethnically half Jewish on dads side but were raised religiously agnostic, celebrating both Christmas & Hanukkah" (Tweet). Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Twitter.
  6. ^ Joseph C. Lin (August 1, 2014). "Disney's Gravity Falls Creator on How to Create a Show for All Ages". Time. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
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  47. ^ Hirsch, Alex [@_alexhirsch] (December 18, 2015). "Noticed that my girlfriend @DanaTerrace looks eerily similar to Dana Scully and now I can't un-see it" (Tweet). Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2020 – via Twitter.
  48. ^ a b Stanichar, Joseph (August 10, 2020). "Gravity Falls Creator Outs Prior LGBTQ+ Censorship at Disney; Policy Changed with The Owl House". Paste. Archived from the original on March 13, 2022. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
  49. ^ Carey, Kristen (June 16, 2022). "Holy Poop, These Notes Disney's Censors Gave 'Gravity Falls' Creator Alex Hirsch!". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022.
  50. ^ Terrace, Dana (April 24, 2022). "Dana's Sketchbook — VENT COMIC". Tumblr. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved May 25, 2022. AFTER A CANCELATION, A BREAKUP, AND A COUPLE OF ROUGH YEARS..
  51. ^ "'Gravity Falls' Creator Alex Hirsch Shares Notes from Disney S&P". Cartoon Brew. June 17, 2022. Archived from the original on November 8, 2022.
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  53. ^ Nicole Hakim (August 9, 2020). "Gravity Falls Creator Congratulates Owl House for Providing the LGBTQ+ Disney Story He Couldn't". CBR. Archived from the original on March 13, 2022. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  54. ^ William Hughes (November 6, 2020). "Alex Hirsch trolling Trump's voter fraud hotline as Gravity Falls characters is keeping us alive". A.V. Club. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  55. ^ Bruce Haring (November 8, 2020). "'Gravity Falls' Creator Alex Hirsch Calls Voter Fraud Hotline, Reports Hamburglar-Like Theft In His Characters' Voices". Deadline. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  56. ^ Aquillina, Tyler (November 7, 2020). "Alex Hirsch pranks Trump's voter fraud hotline as his Gravity Falls characters". EW. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  57. ^ Avalanche Software. Disney Infinity 3.0. Scene: Closing credits, 5:39 in, Featuring the Voice Talents of.
  58. ^ "A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma: An Interview with Gravity Falls: Lost Legends Author Alex Hirsch". B&N Reads. Barnes and Noble. July 16, 2018. Archived from the original on January 14, 2022. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  59. ^ Nolfi, Joey (February 5, 2017). "Zootopia, Kubo and the Two Strings win big at Annie Awards". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
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