Emmy Award winner Seth MacFarlane was the creative mind behind the irreverent animated series, "Family Guy" (Fox 1999-2001; 2005- ), which breathed new life into the family sitcom with its deep-cut cultural references and often-risky political and social satire. A critical favorite from its debut in 1999, the show was cancelled in 2002 when its cult audience proved inadequate in number to satisfy the Fox network. In a nearly unprecedented move, however, the network revived the series in 2005 due to popular demand, and watched as it bounced back to earn more Emmy Award nominations for its densely packed writing. It also spawned the spin-off, “The Cleveland Show” (Fox, 2009- ). Concurrently, MacFarlane wrote, produced and voiced – as in “Family Guy” – a significant number of the lead characters on “American Dad” (Fox, 2005- ), another animated portrait of a dysfunctional family, one whose right-wing head of household afforded MacFarlane the ripe opportunity to take aim at American conservatism. With three original and successful series to his name, as well as frequent voice-over contributions to a number of other series including the lauded “Robot Chicken” (Adult Swim, 2005), MacFarlane was widely considered one of the most well respected figures in animated primetime comedy.
MacFarlane was born in Kent, CT on Oct. 26, 1973. At age eight, he authored a comic strip that was picked up by his hometown newspaper. A few years later, he became interested in pursuing a career in animation when he saw a television special segment profiling a young animator. To that end, he headed to the Rhode Island School of Design where he majored in animation, learned about the business, and began to find his own voice. A RISD professor sent MacFarlane's thesis film, “Life of Larry” – a precursor to “Family Guy” – to Hanna-Barbera Productions, which hired MacFarlane after his 1995 graduation. Relocating to Los Angeles, MacFarlane wrote and directed shorts and was a storyboard artist for "Johnny Bravo" (Cartoon Network, 1997-2004), "Dexter’s Laboratory" (Cartoon Network, 1997-2004), and “Jungle Cubs” (ABC, 1996-98; Disney Channel, 1998-2000), as well as worked on an episode of “Cow & Chicken” (Cartoon Network, 1997-2000). In 1996, MacFarlane expanded his earlier thesis film into “Larry & Steve,” and the comedy short caught the attention of the executives at Fox who offered him a deal to create animated featurettes to air on "Mad TV" (Fox, 1995-2009). The deal fell apart, but Fox did not want to lose MacFarlane or his talents, so they gave him $50,000 to produce a partial pilot for his own comedy series.
After six months of painstakingly hand drawing a 15-minute pilot episode, MacFarlane presented “Family Guy” to Fox executives who promptly bought it and aired its debut episode in the prestigious post-Super Bowl slot in January 1999. In addition to serving as the series creator, executive producer, and writer, 25-year-old MacFarlane also voiced three members of the Griffin family – wise dog Brian; Brainy, matricidal, inexplicably British-accented toddler Stewie; and oafish, clueless, but well-meaning dad Peter. Rounding out the cast of this offbeat, working class Rhode Island family were Alex Borstein as levelheaded mother Lois, Cree Summer as teen angst-ridden Meg, and Seth Green as underachiever Chris. Fox went on to move “Family Guy” to various time slots, but critics kept enough of an eye on the sharply written, wryly satirical, and densely packed show that in 2000, it earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated Program, while accidental actor MacFarlane took home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance.
But despite critical acclaim and a cult following, the series struggled to bring in consistent ratings, and was axed from the Fox schedule in February 2002, the same year that MacFarlane won an Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the song “You’ve Got a Lot To See” from the episode, “Brian Wallows and Peter’s Swallows.” Undaunted, MacFarlane remained a key figure in the increasingly popular genre of adult-oriented animation. While developing his next project – another animated series that would evolve into “American Dad!” – MacFarlane appeared (in voice-over) on four episodes of Comedy Central’s “Crank Yankers” (Comedy Central, 2002-05), and also transitioned from voice-over actor to on-screen talent by putting his youthful, wholesome looks to work on the small-town dramedy, “Gilmore Girls” (WB, 2000-06; CW, 2006-07). The admitted sci-fi nut also had the chance to appear in two episodes of “Star Trek: Enterprise” (UPN, 2001-05). By 2004, Fox had signed a deal and begun production on “American Dad!” while record-breaking sales of “Family Guy” on DVD – coupled with the show’s popular reruns on the Cartoon Network (not to mention an ongoing campaign by the show’s fans) – led Fox to put “Family Guy” back into production. That nearly unprecedented move was met with thundering applause, and in 2005, “Family Guy” returned to primetime alongside MacFarlane’s latest creation, “American Dad!”
Spawned from the divisive cultural and political atmosphere surrounding the 2004 election, “American Dad!” offered a wildly different domestic profile than its predecessor, featuring a trigger-happy, neoconservative CIA agent with delusions of heroism (voiced by MacFarlane) married to a former groupie and raising an ultraliberal daughter and a geeky, sensitive son. Further opportunities for social satire came from the effeminate alien living in the family attic (also voiced by MacFarlane) and a pet goldfish who embodies a former East German Olympic skier, the result of a CIA experiment gone horribly awry. While that show was slower to catch on with audiences, the return of “Family Guy” was immediately recognized with Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Animated Program in 2005 and 2006. While concurrently producing, voicing and writing for two weekly series, MacFarlane continued to work as a voice actor, beginning a long relationship with the series “Robot Chicken” (Adult Swim, 2005- ) in 2005. In his first live action venture, MacFarlane executive produced “The Winner” (Fox, 2007) for Fox, casting Rob Corddry as a successful thirty-something man who still lives with his parents. It was cancelled after only six episodes.
In 2008, “Family Guy” earned another Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated Program, and MacFarlane rolled out another project, the web-only animated series “Seth MacFarlanes’ Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.” The series of shorts snared over three million views in its first two days on the web. MacFarlane was nominated for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for “Family Guy” in 2009, and that fall debuted “The Cleveland Show” (Fox, 2009-), a “Family Guy” spin-off centered on Cleveland Brown, an African-American deli owner and neighbor of the “Family Guy” Griffin family.