Rob Renzetti

Summary

Robert John Renzetti is an American animator and author. Renzetti is known for creating My Life as a Teenage Robot and the Oh Yeah! Cartoons series Mina and the Count for Nickelodeon, directing Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack for Cartoon Network and serving as the animation director of Sym-Bionic Titan. He was also the supervising producer on the Disney Channel animated television series Gravity Falls and an executive producer on Big City Greens. He most recently served as story editor and co-executive producer on Kid Cosmic for Netflix and released his first original novel, The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things.

Rob Renzetti
Born
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts
Occupation(s)Writer, director, storyboard artist, layout artist, animator
Years active1991–present
Known forMina and the Count
My Life as a Teenage Robot
The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things
Websiterobrenzetti.com

Early life edit

Renzetti, born in Chicago and raised in Addison, Illinois, was an art history major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[1][2] After graduating from Illinois, Renzetti attended the animation program at Columbia College Chicago for one year, where he was a classmate of Genndy Tartakovsky. Renzetti and Tartakovsky were then each accepted into the California Institute of the Arts, where they were roommates.[3]

Career edit

After graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Renzetti began his animating career in Spain, working on 5 episodes for Batman: The Animated Series.[3]

Renzetti has been writer, director, and storyboard artist for several Cartoon Network shows, including 2 Stupid Dogs, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. He won an Emmy award in 2009 for his work on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. During the mid-1990s, he created Mina and the Count, a series of animated shorts that premiered on the What a Cartoon! show then later aired for a short time on the similar anthology series Oh Yeah! Cartoons. In 1999, he made the short "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot", which also debuted on Oh Yeah! Cartoons; in 2003, My Life as a Teenage Robot, based on the short, debuted on Nickelodeon. In April 2008, he started work on Cartoon Network's The Cartoonstitute project as supervising producer.

He was story editor on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic for the series' first two seasons, but left in 2011, soon after the departure of the series showrunner, Lauren Faust, to work as the supervising producer on Disney's Gravity Falls. He subsequently worked on Disney's Big City Greens as one of its executive producers.[4] He was most recently co-executive producer on Kid Cosmic for Netflix.

Renzetti has (co-)written four books based on various Disney properties, including Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!, the New York Times Bestseller Gravity Falls: Journal 3, DuckTales: Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History, and Onward: Quests Of Yore. His first original novel, The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things, was released in July 2023. A new installment in The Horrible Series, The Twisted Tower of Endless Torment, is set to release in July 2024, with the third novel potentially already being in the works.[5]

Works edit

Film edit

Year Title Role
1991 Dudley's Classroom Adventure animator

Television edit

Year Title Role Notes
1993–1995 2 Stupid Dogs writer
storyboard artist
director
1995 Dumb and Dumber storyboard artist
1995–1997 Dexter's Laboratory director
storyboard artist
animation director
1995 Mina and the Count creator
writer
producer
director
1998 Oh Yeah! Cartoons producer Episode: "The F-Tales"
The Powerpuff Girls writer
storyboard artist
director
Episode 4.7: Nano of the North
Episode 4.8: Stray Bullet
2000 Family Guy director Episode 2.18: "E. Peterbus Unum"
Episode 3.6: "Death Lives"
2001 Time Squad storyboard artist Episode 1.5a: "Dishonest Abe"
Episode 1.12b: "Where the Buffalo Bill Roams"
2001–2002 House of Mouse storyboard artist
timing director
2001–2002, 2017 Samurai Jack sheet timer
director
2002 Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? supervising producer
director
2003–2009 My Life as a Teenage Robot creator
developer
writer
executive producer
director
storyboard artist
2006–2009 Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends post supervising director
story
writer
storyboard artist
director
2009 Random! Cartoons sheet timer
director
Episode: "6 Monsters"
2010-2013 Adventure Time sheet timer
2010–2011 Sym-Bionic Titan sheet timer
animation director
2010–2011 My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic story editor
2012–2016 Gravity Falls supervising producer
director
story editor (season 1)
Episode 2.1: "Scary-Oke"
2018–2019 Big City Greens executive producer
2021–2022 Kid Cosmic writer
director
co-executive producer

Internet edit

Year Title Role Notes
2015 Cartoons VS Cancer Himself Podcast
2016 Nickelodeon Animation Podcast
2022 Mystery Shack Lookback

Bibliography edit

Year Title Publisher ISBN Notes
2014 Gravity Falls: Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun! Disney Press ISBN 978-1484710807 Co-written with Shane Houghton
2016 Gravity Falls: Journal 3 ISBN 978-1484746691 Co-written with Alex Hirsch
2018 DuckTales: Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History ISBN 978-1368008419 Co-written with Rachel Vine
2020 Onward: Quests of Yore ISBN 978-1368052092
2023 The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things Penguin Workshop ISBN 978-0593519523
2024 The Twisted Tower of Endless Torment ISBN 978-0593519554

References edit

  1. ^ Levy, David (September 23, 2011). "Animondays Interview: Rob Renzetti - Part I". Animondays. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  2. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiOZt9sOFO8 Rob Renzetti interview from Boing! Podcast Part 1 of 7 Retrieved April 21, 2010
  3. ^ a b https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B9vqu0zpwI Rob Renzetti interview from Boing! Podcast Part 2 of 7 Retrieved April 21, 2010
  4. ^ Zahed, Ramin (June 14, 2018). "Making Disney Channel's 'Big City Greens'". Animation Magazine.
  5. ^ "The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things". Rob Renzetti. Retrieved February 6, 2024.

External links edit

  • Rob Renzetti at IMDb
  • The Teenage Roblog