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Matt Braly

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Matt Braly
Braly in 2019
Born
Matthew Benjakarn Braly

(1988-11-08) November 8, 1988 (age 36)
Sacramento, California, U.S.
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts
Occupations
  • Animator
  • director
  • producer
  • storyboard artist
  • writer
Years active2010–present
Known forAmphibia
Spouse
Katherine Bedrosian
​
(m. 2018)​
MotherOn Braly

Matthew Benjakarn Braly (/ˈbrɑːli/ BRAH-lee; born November 8, 1988) is an American animator, storyboard artist, writer, and director. He is best known as the creator and executive producer of the Disney Channel animated series Amphibia.[1] He also worked as a director on Gravity Falls and Big City Greens.

Career

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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] He started his career studying at the California Institute of the Arts; he graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.[3] After graduating, he joined DreamWorks Animation, where he worked as a storyboard artist for Turbo (2013).[4]

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.[4] Hirsch also went to CalArts and, while they never studied together, Braly liked his student films.[4] During the visit, Hirsch pitched Gravity Falls to Braly.[4]

Fascinated by the concept and how Hirsch wanted it to be a 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.[4] 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.[4] The series premiered on June 15, 2012, and ended on February 15, 2016.[5] In 2016, Braly won an Annie Award for directing the Gravity Falls episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery".[6] Braly also served as an in-house key animator for the closing scene for the episode "Not What He Seems".[7]

After directing on Big City Greens,[4][8] Braly developed a series titled Amphibia for Disney Channel.[9] The series centers on the adventures of a Thai-American girl named Anne Boonchuy in the titular amphibian-populated world.[9] The series was inspired by Braly's childhood trips to Bangkok, Thailand, where he felt like an outsider but ultimately ended up not wanting to leave.[10] He also drew inspiration from video games such as The Legend of Zelda and Chrono Trigger.[11] 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.[12] The series aired for three seasons consisting of 58 episodes from June 17, 2019, to May 14, 2022. He considers the series finale "The Hardest Thing" to be his favorite episode.[13]

After Amphibia ended production in May 2022, Braly left Disney Television Animation. In August 2023, he wrote a Sonic the Hedgehog online comic strip as a part of the Sonic Fast Friends Forever campaign.[14] On December 14, 2023, it was announced that Braly is set to direct a fantasy-adventure film for Sony Pictures Animation from a screenplay he co-wrote with longtime collaborator Rebecca Sugar; the film will center on an ill boy who travels to a spiritual Thai world.[15][16] Braly is also developing a graphic novel,[16] which was announced in August 2024 as Family Force V. Skybound Comet is set to publish the graphic novel in May 2025.[17] Braly is also supervising development on a series of shorts exploring social issues.

Personal life

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Braly is of Thai descent. His mother, On Braly, provided the voice of Mrs. Boonchuy on Amphibia.[18] Braly and his wife, software engineer Katherine Bedrosian, both attended Christian Brothers High School together.[19][20] They married on April 21, 2018.[19][21]

As a child, Braly used to watch films such as Mortal Kombat (1995) due to them being filmed in Thailand, as there was no Thai representation on television.[12] 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.[22] Both Braly and his wife are fans of RuPaul's Drag Race; RuPaul himself had a recurring role in season 3 of Amphibia.[23]

Filmography

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Films

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Year Title Director Writer Storyboard
artist		 Others Notes
2012 Adam and Dog No No No Yes Assistant animator
Short film
2013 Turbo No No Yes No
2021 The Mitchells vs. the Machines[24] No No Yes No Uncredited
TBA Untitled Sony Pictures Animation film Yes Yes TBA TBA Co-written with Rebecca Sugar

Television

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Year Title Creator Producer Writer Storyboard
artist		 Director Actor Others Role Notes
2012–16 Gravity Falls No No No Yes Yes No Yes 8 episodes
Key animator[a]
2014 Steven Universe No No Yes Yes No No No Episode: "Lars and the Cool Kids"
2017 Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer No No No Yes No No No Storyboard revisionist
Episodes: "Lab Friends... Forever?" and "Surviving Billy"
DuckTales No No No No No No Yes Additional character designer
Episode: "Woo-oo!"
2018 Big City Greens No No Yes Yes Yes No No 7 episodes
2019–22 Amphibia Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Chuck
Newtopian gatekeeper[25]
The Seamstress[25]
Additional voices		 Executive producer
2023 The Owl House No No No No No No Yes Special Thanks
Episode: "Watching and Dreaming"

Nominations and awards

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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 [6]
2021 Daytime Emmys Outstanding Children's Animated Series Amphibia Nominated [26]
2022 Annie Awards Best TV/Media – Children "True Colors" Nominated [27]
33rd GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Kids and Family Programming Amphibia Nominated [28]
Children's and Family Emmys Outstanding Writing for an Animated Program Amphibia Nominated [29]
2023 34th GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Kids and Family Programming Amphibia Nominated [30]

Notes

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  1. ^ Episode "Not What He Seems" only

References

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  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 Braly, Matt (June 1, 2021). "Sit Down and Think With Amphibia Creator Matt Braly" (Interview). Sit Down and Think. Retrieved August 3, 2022 – via YouTube.
  3. ^ Zoormandan, Taya (March 27, 2019). "CalArtians Selected as Animation Magazine's Rising Stars". 24700. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Frye, Brendan (July 4, 2019). "WONDERS OF ANIMATION: TALKING TO MATT BRALY OF AMPHIBIA". CGM Backlot.
  5. ^ Hughes, William (November 20, 2015). "Gravity Falls is ending". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  6. ^ a b "43RD ANNUAL ANNIE AWARDS". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  7. ^ Terrace, Dana (March 12, 2015). "Animation I did from the last scene of Not What He Seems. Keys by Matt Braly. Woo". Dana's Sketchbook – via Tumblr.
  8. ^ Braly, Matt (July 14, 2020). "AMPHIBIA Q&A with Matt Braly" (Interview). Interviewed by Gladstone, Frank. ASIFA Hollywood – via YouTube.
  9. ^ a b Pedersen, Erik. "Disney Channel Launching Toon Series 'Amphibia' and 'The Owl House', Renews 'Star vs. the Forces of Evil' for Season 4". Deadline. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  10. ^ Sgherza, Mariana (July 25, 2019). "Matt Braly, creador de Amphibia y Gravity Falls: "Siempre quise crear mi propia fantasía"" [Matt Braly, creator of Amphibia and Gravity Falls: "I always wanted to create my own fantasy"]. Cultura Geek (in Spanish).
  11. ^ Radulovic, Petrana (August 14, 2020). "The Disney channel series inspired by Zelda finally gets a retro-game reimagining". Polygon.
  12. ^ a b Brown, Tracy (June 14, 2019). "'Amphibia' creator wants kids to feel seen with his Thai American heroine". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  13. ^ Braly, Matt [@Radrappy] (May 12, 2022). "Really though, everyone who has touched the show up until this point has contributed to this final story. It's honestly my favorite episode of the show - full stop. See you on the other side!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. ^ @sonic_hedgehog (August 16, 2023). "Have you ever wanted to fly? Well, you're not the only one! Check out @Radrappy 's comic in our Fast Friends Forever series" (Tweet). Retrieved August 17, 2023 – via Twitter.
  15. ^ Grobar, Matt (December 14, 2023). "Sony Pictures Animation Developing Thai Fantasy-Adventure Pic From Matt Braly". Deadline. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  16. ^ a b @sonic_hedgehog (August 16, 2023). "Learn more about lifelong Sonic fan Matt Braly!" (Tweet). Retrieved August 17, 2023 – via Twitter.
  17. ^ Fang, Sam (August 23, 2024). "Finale of a Walking Dead Series and More Announced by Skybound". CBR. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
  18. ^ Braly, Matt [@Radrappy] (July 11, 2019). "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" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. ^ a b "Alumni News & Notes". Connection. Sacramento, California: Christian Brothers High School. Spring 2018. p. 42. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  20. ^ "I'm Matt Braly, creator and executive producer of Amphibia - Ask me anything!!!". Reddit. August 22, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2022. She's a software engineer and is 10x smarter than me
  21. ^ Braly, Matt [@Radrappy] (April 22, 2018). "Fun fact: last night I married the love of my life, Katie, at the Sacramento zoo" (Tweet). Retrieved December 5, 2023 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Cap, Damon (June 11, 2019). "Talking Amphibia On Disney Channel With Matt Braly – Exclusive". BSCkids. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  23. ^ Bishop, Rollin (May 3, 2022). "Amphibia's Matt Braly Talks Fandom, Season 3, and the End of the Show". ComicBook.com. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  24. ^ Rianda, Michael [@michaelrianda] (March 31, 2021). "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" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  25. ^ a b Braly, Matt [@Radrappy] (October 18, 2020). "characters I have voiced on #amphibia thus far" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  26. ^ "Daytime Emmy Awards" (PDF). Deadline. June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  27. ^ Giardina, Carolyn (December 21, 2021). "'Raya and the Last Dragon' Leads 2022 Annie Awards Feature Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
  28. ^ Tapp, Tom (January 19, 2022). "GLAAD Media Awards Nominations: HBO/HBO Max Leads With 19; Netflix Close Behind". Deadline. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  29. ^ Schneider, Michael (November 1, 2022). "Netflix Leads Nomination Tally for First-Ever Children's & Family Emmys". Variety. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  30. ^ "The Nominees for the 34th Annual GLAAD Media Awards - GLAAD". GLAAD. January 27, 2023. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
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