Matt Braly

Matthew Benjakarn "Matt" Braly (born November 8, 1988) is a Thai-American animator, writer, director, producer, storyboard artist, and voice actor. 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.

Matt Braly
Born	Matthew Benjakarn Braly November 8, 1988 Sacramento, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Occupation	Animator voice actor writer director storyboard artist
Years active	2012–present
Known for	Amphibia

Career

Braly started his career in animation studying at the CalArts institute. After graduating, he joined DreamWorks Animation, where he worked as an story artist in the computer-animated film Turbo (2013).[2]

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.[2] Hirsch also went to CalArts and, while they never studied together, Braly liked his student films.[2] During the visit, Hirsch pitched Gravity Falls to Braly.[2]

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.[2] 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.[2] The series premiered on June 15, 2012, and ended on February 15, 2016.[3] In 2016, Braly won an Annie Award for directing the Gravity Falls episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery".[4]

After directing on Big City Greens,[2][5] Braly developed a show titled Amphibia, for Disney.[6] The show centers on the adventures of a Thai-American girl named Anne Boonchuy in the titular frog-populated world.[6] 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.[7] He also drew inspiration from video games such as The Legend of Zelda and Chrono Trigger.[8] 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.[9] The series premiered on July 11, 2019, and is currently airing its second season, with a third season in development.[10]

Personal life

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.[9] Braly's mother, On Braly, made vocal cameos in the Amphibia episodes "Family Fishing Trip"[11] and "Lost in Newtopia".

Filmography

Year	Title	Producer	Screenwriter	Storyboard artist	Director	Actor	Role	Notes
2012-16	Gravity Falls	No	No	Yes	Yes	No		8 episodes
2013	Turbo	No	No	Yes	No	No
2014	Steven Universe	No	Yes	Yes	No	No		Episode: "Lars and the Cool Kids"
2017	Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer	No	No	Yes	No	No		Storyboard revisionist Episodes: "Lab Friends... Forever?" and "Surviving Billy"
	DuckTales	No	No	No	No	No		Additional character designer Episode: "Woo-oo!"
2018	Big City Greens	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
2019–present	Amphibia	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Chuck Newtopian gatekeeper[12] The Seamstress[12] 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	Won	[4]

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. WONDERS OF ANIMATION: TALKING TO MATT BRALY OF AMPHIBIA
3. Hughes, William (November 20, 2015). "Gravity Falls is ending". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
4. "43RD ANNUAL ANNIE AWARDS". AnnieAwards.org. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
5. AMPHIBIA Q&A with Matt Braly
6. 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.
7. Matt Braly, creador de Amphibia y Gravity Falls: “Siempre quise crear mi propia fantasía” (In Spanish)
8. Disney's Amphibia, inspired by Zelda, gets a retro 8-bit theme song opening
9. ‘Amphibia’ creator wants kids to feel seen with his Thai American heroine
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. characters I have voiced on #amphibia thus far

External links

• Matt Braly at IMDb