Matt Braly

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Matt Braly
Born
Matthew Benjakarn Braly

(1988-11-08) November 8, 1988 (age 33)
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts
Occupation
  • Animator
  • storyboard artist
  • director
  • writer
  • producer
Years active2010–present
Known for
Parent(s)
  • On Braly (mother)

Matthew Benjakarn "Matt" Braly (born November 8, 1988) is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, writer, and producer. He is best known for creating and executive-producing the Disney Channel animated series Amphibia,[1] as well as directing on Gravity Falls and Big City Greens.

Career[edit]

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 premiered on July 11, 2019, and is currently airing its third season.[12]

Personal life[edit]

Braly's mother, On Braly, provides the voice of Mrs. Boonchuy on Amphibia.[13]

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.[14]

Filmography[edit]

Films[edit]

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[15] Yes No Uncredited

Television[edit]

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-present Big City Greens No Yes Yes Yes No No 7 episodes
Episode: "Bear Trapped"[b]
2019–present Amphibia Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Chuck
Newtopian gatekeeper[16]
The Seamstress[16] Additional voices
Creator and executive producer

Nominations and awards[edit]

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 [17]
2022 GLAAD Media Award Outstanding Kids and Family Programming Amphibia Pending [18]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Episode "Not What He Seems" only
  2. ^ Written and storyboarded only

References[edit]

  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
  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 Amphibia 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 Amphibia y Gravity Falls: “Siempre quise crear mi propia fantasía” (In Spanish)
  10. ^ Disney's Amphibia, 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
  12. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (June 23, 2020). "Disney Channel Renews 'Amphibia' For Season 3; Kermit The Frog, Jenifer Lewis, George Takei And More To Guest Star On Season 2". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  13. ^ My mother, On Braly, voiced Anne's mother in a flashback during today's episode - Family Fishing Trip. You can hear her yelling in Thai off screen, which if you come from a bilingual household should sound pretty familiar. She's never voice acted before but was a TOTAL PRO.
  14. ^ Talking Amphibia On Disney Channel With Matt Braly – Exclusive
  15. ^ 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
  16. ^ a b characters I have voiced on #amphibia thus far
  17. ^ "Daytime Emmy Awards" (PDF). Deadline. June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  18. ^ GLAAD Media Awards Nominations: HBO/HBO Max Leads With 19; Netflix Close Behind

External links[edit]