Joe Murray Biography
Joe Murray, born Joseph David Murray, is an American animator, writer, illustrator, producer-director, and voice actor. He is best known for creating the Nickelodeon animated series Rocko’s Modern Life and the Cartoon Network series Camp Lazlo. His interest in the arts began when he was just three years old. He was taught art by his high school art teacher Mark Briggs and was hired as a designer as soon as he became an adult. He founded the independent illustration production company Joe Murray Studios in 1981 as he was just 20 years old.
Joe has won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Camp Lazlo and Outstanding Animated Program for the TV film Camp Lazlo: Where’s Lazlo. He also authored the book Creating Animated Cartoons with Character featuring animators about their careers.
Joe Murray Age
Joe Murray was born on the 3rd of May 1961 in San Jose, California, United States. As of 2018, he is 57 years old.
Joe Murray Wife(s)
Some years following the death of his first wife, Diane Murray, he married Aleide Murray. The two stayed together for a while until they separated somewhere between 2005 and 2007. He married Carol Wyatt in 2011 and has been with her ever since.
Joe Murray Career
He became a full-time artist at age 16 first taking the position of a political cartoonist for a newspaper in San Jose. He mostly targeted the President at the time, Jimmy Carter. He was later hired as a designer where he used his earnings to invest in independent animated films. Sometime later, he founded his own illustration company, Joe Murray Studios in 1981 when he was just 20 years old. He created several short animated films with his most successful being “The Chore” which earned him the Merit Student Academy Award in 1989. He then did two network ID’s for MTV from 1998 to 1991.
His third independent and first color film, My Dog Zero was released in 1992. To fund the film, Murray initially tried to pre-sell the television show rights to My Dog Zero but instead created a separate television series called Rocko’s Modern Life. The latter series aired on Nickelodeon from 1993 to 1996. Apart from being the executive producer for the series, he voiced the characters Ralph Bighead in the episodes “I Have No Son” and “Wacky Delly”, and a caricature version of himself in “Short Story”. According to Joe Murray, around three or four months after creating and submitting Rocko’s Modern Life to Nickelodeon, he had “forgotten about” the concept of them working with him long term and was working on My Dog Zero when Linda Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode.
After three seasons of Rocko’s Modern Life, he handed the program to Stephen Hillenburg, who made the fourth season of the show. Joe took a break from animation after this and produced two children’s books and illustrated two others: Who Asked the Moon to Dinner?, The Enormous Mister Schmupsle: An ABC Adventure, Hugville, and Funny Cryptograms. He decided to go back to television this time with Cartoon Network Studios. He created Camp Lazlo in 2005 which went for five seasons until 2007 when it ended. He then created the TV film Where’s Lazlo, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. After Camp Lazlo, he began working on a new independent film project called Fish Head and published his book, Creating Animated Cartoons with Character. He also produced another short series Frog in a Suit for KaboingTV.
He has been working to develop KaboingTV, a web network dedicated to making cartoons entirely. The network premiered on the 11th of March 2011. Most recently, he has also been working on a new animated show called Let’s Go Luna! which has earned a Gold label award from Parents Choice.
Joe Murray Television Programs
|
Year |
Title |
|
2018– |
Let’s Go Luna! |
|
2005-08 |
Camp Lazlo |
|
1995 |
The Maxx |
|
Beavis and Butt-Head |
|
|
1993-96 |
Rocko’s Modern Life |
Joe Murray Movies
|
Year |
Title |
Role |
|
2011 |
Rango |
|
|
2018 |
Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling |
Ralph Bighead |
Independent Films
- The Chore
- My Dog Zero
- The Affair
- fishing
- Fish Head
Joe Murray Books
Written and illustrated
- Who Asked the Moon to Dinner? (December 31, 1999)
- The Enormous Mr. Schmupsle! (August 2003)
- Crafting a Cartoon (September 2008)
- Creating Animated Cartoons with Character (August 24, 2010)
Illustrated
- Funny Cryptograms (May 2003)
- Hugville (December 2005)