Matt Braly

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Matt Braly
Born
Matthew Benjakarn Braly

(1988-11-08) November 8, 1988 (age 33)
Sacramento, California U.S.
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts
Occupation
  • Animator
  • director
  • writer
  • producer
  • storyboard artist
Years active2012–present
Known for

Matthew Benjakarn "Matt" Braly (born November 8, 1988) is an American animator, director, writer, producer, and storyboard artist. 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[]

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[]

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[]

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[15] 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
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[]

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[]

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

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