Craig Kellman

Craig Kellman
Born	(1971-09-28) September 28, 1971 Los Gatos, California, U.S.
Other names	Craig D. Kellman
Occupations	Animator character designer director
Years active	1990–present
Known for	Samurai Jack The Powerpuff Girls Madagascar Hotel Transylvania Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 Trolls

Craig Kellman (born September 28, 1971) is an American animator, character designer and director. He is best known for his work on Madagascar (2005), Hotel Transylvania (2012), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013), Trolls (2016), The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack.

Background

Kellman attended the California Institute of the Arts as a part of their character animation program. At 18, he started work in animation on Bobby's World. He would go on to produce and direct The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat at 23 and work on major animated series, such as Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show.

Awards and nominations

Kellman has received multiple awards and nominations for his works in animation. He has been nominated twice for an Emmy, winning one 2017 for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" for episode "XCII" of Samurai Jack. Kellman also won an Annie Award for "Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production" for his work on the episode "XCVI", as well as one for " Outstanding Achievement in Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production" for Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas in 2016.

Filmography

Year	Title	Credit(s)	Notes
1990	Adventures of the Gummi Bears	Layout artist	Uncredited
1991	Adventures in Dinosaur City	Character designer, designer
	A Wish for Wings That Work	Animator
1992	Bulimiator	Director
1993	Bonkers	Character designer	4 episodes
	Batman: Mask of the Phantasm	Character designer
1993–1994	Animaniacs	Model designer	3 episodes
1994	The Ren & Stimpy Show	Storyboard artist	1 episode
	The Itsy Bitsy Spider	Storyboard artist
1990–1995	Bobby's World	Model designer, models, storyboard artist	24 episodes
1992–1995	Batman: The Animated Series	Character designer	23 episodes
1994–1995	The Critic	Character designer	22 episodes
1995	Pinky and the Brain	Models	3 episodes
1995–1997	The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat	Character designer, background artist, layout artist, storyboard artist, director, producer, writer, voice director	12 episodes
1995–1997	What a Cartoon!	Layout artist, character designer, storyboard artist	6 episodes
1997	Loose Tooth	Visual development artist
	The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue	Character designer	Credited as "Craig D. Kellman"
1998	The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars	Character design	Credited as "Craig D. Kellman"
1998–1999	Toonsylvania	Layout artist, character layout	8 episodes
1999	Mickey Mouse Works	Storyboard artist	1 episode
	Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip	Models, production designer
2000	Hairballs	Character layout artist, additional animator, director
2000–2001	Cartoon Cartoon Fridays	Models	5 episodes
2001	Imp, Inc.	Animation layout
	Captain Sturdy: Back in Action	Layout artist, character layout, storyboard artist, art director, production designer
	The Flintstones: On the Rocks	Character designer
1998–2002	The Powerpuff Girls	Models, art director	26 episodes
2002	The Powerpuff Girls Movie	Character designer, development
	Oh Yeah Cartoons!	Character designer	1 episode
	Dexter's Laboratory: Chicken Scratch	Layout
1996–2003	Dexter's Laboratory	Layout artist	2 episodes
2003	The Powerpuff Girls: 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas	Character designer
2004	Home on the Range	Additional visual development artist
	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	Conception character designer
2005	Madagascar	Lead character designer
	The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper	Character designer
	HBO First Look	Self	"Madagascar: Welcome to the Jungle" episode
2006	How to Eat Fried Worms	Layout	Via Orphanage Animation Studios
2004–2007	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends	Animation director, character designer, director, creative producer	25 episodes
2007	El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera	Character designer	2 episodes
	Bee Movie	Additional character designer
	The Modifyers	Additional character design	Credited as "Craig D. Kellman"
2008	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	Character designer
	The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!	Character designer
2009	Monsters vs. Aliens	Character design
	Joey to the World	Creator, director
	The Haunted World of El Superbeasto	Storyboard artist
	SpongeBob SquarePants	Storyboard director	1 episode
	Merry Madagascar	Character design
	The Powerpuff Girls: Who, What, Where, How, Why... Who Cares?	Self	Video documentary short
2008–2010	The Penguins of Madagascar	Character designer	33 episodes
2010	The Ricky Gervais Show	Character designer, director	13 episodes
2011	McBusters	Voice (judge)	Appeared in McBusters 3
	The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol	Additional voices
2012	Hotel Transylvania	Character designer, voice actor	Voice of "Guy in Crowd" and "Hydra"
	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	Character design
2013	Madly Madagascar	Character designer
	The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow	Additional voices
	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Character designer, voice actor	Voice of "Flintly McCallahan" and "Idea Pants Guy"
	Super Manny	Voice
2014	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	Character designer
	Penguins of Madagascar	Character designer
	Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas	Character designer
	Steve's First Bath	Writer
2015	Hotel Transylvania 2	Character designer
	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Sponge Out of Water	Art department	Designed and supervised by Rap Battle Sequence
2016	Sausage Party	Lead character designer
	The Angry Birds Movie	Additional artist
	Ask the StoryBots	Additional character design, writer, developer	6 episodes
	Trolls	Character designer
2017	Puppy!: A Hotel Transylvania Short	Character design
2001–2017	Samurai Jack	Character designer, property designer	17 episodes
2018	Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation	Character designer, voice actor	Voice of "Mr. Hydraberg"
	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse	Character design for Spider-Ham
	A Wizard's Tale	Character designer
2019	The Addams Family	Character designer
	Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham	Lead character designer
2020	The Willoughbys	Character designer
2021	Monster Pets: A Hotel Transylvania Short Film	Character design
	The Addams Family 2	Designer
	The Loud House Movie	Additional character design
2022	Hotel Transylvania: Transformania	Character designer
	DC League of Super-Pets	Character designer
	Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank	Character designer: Mass Animation
	Strange World	Character designer	Uncredited
2023	Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken	Character design
	Trolls Band Together	Character design

External links

• Craig Kellman on IMDb
• Craig Kellman on Linkedin