Genndy Tartakovsky (Russian: Геннадий Тартаковский [Gyennadiy Tartakovskiy], born January 17, 1970) is a leading modern animator. His work is influenced heavily by American comic books, anime, and pop culture.
Born in the Soviet Union, he moved to the United States when he was seven. Tartakovsky studied film at Chicago's Columbia College and the California Institute of the Arts.
His early animation career consisted of in-betweening for various animated television shows, such as Batman: The Animated Series and The Critic. He later got work drawing storyboards for Hanna-Barbera's 2 Stupid Dogs.
Tartakovsky is most well known for creating, writing, and directing the animated series Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. Dexter's Lab grew out of a student film with the same title that he produced while at the California Institute of the Arts. Additionally, he helped produce The Powerpuff Girls and has directed many episodes, serving as the animation director for The Powerpuff Girls Movie. He also directed Star Wars: Clone Wars, a successful miniseries set in the Star Wars universe depicting the Clone Wars.
Recently, Genndy has been made creative president of The Orphanage, an animation studio fabricated of Lucasfilm veterans. The company hopes to one day rival animation giant Pixar, and believe that Genndy can get them there. Their first feature will be the sequel to the 1982 classic The Dark Crystal. It will be directed by Tartakovsky and is titled The Power of the Dark Crystal.
He has also been pitching a cartoon series of Stephen King's The Dark Tower to HBO.
External link
- Genndy Tartakovsky at IMDb
- Just What Made Him The Cartoon Genius He Is Today by Paul Senior
- Biography at StarWars.com