Robert John Renzetti (born September 12, 1967) is an American animator and writer. He is known for creating the animated series My Life as a Teenage Robot and Mina and the Count for Nickelodeon, as well as directing Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack for Cartoon Network. He served as the animation director for Sym-Bionic Titan, supervising producer for Disney Channel's animated series Gravity Falls, and an executive producer for Big City Greens. In addition, he was a story editor and co-executive producer on Kid Cosmic (2021–2023) for Netflix and released his first original novel, The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things (2023), through Penguin Group.
Early life
Renzetti, born in Chicago and raised in Addison, Illinois, was an art history major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduating from Illinois, Renzetti attended the animation program at Columbia College Chicago for one year, where he was a classmate of Genndy Tartakovsky. Renzetti and Tartakovsky were then both accepted into the California Institute of the Arts, where they were roommates.
Career
After graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Renzetti began his animating career in Spain, working on 5 episodes for Batman: The Animated Series. In 2021, he served as executive producer and co-writer on Craig McCracken's Kid Cosmic for Netflix.
Renzetti has co-written four books based on various Disney properties, including Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!, the New York Times Bestseller Gravity Falls: Journal 3, DuckTales: Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History, and Onward: Quests of Yore. His first original novel, The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things, was released in July 2023. A new installment in The Horrible Series, The Twisted Tower of Endless Torment, was released in July 2024, with the third novel potentially already being in the works.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year
! Title
! Role
|-
| 1991
| Dudley's Classroom Adventure
| animator
|-
|2024
|Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation
|timing director
|-
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1993–1995
| 2 Stupid Dogs
| writer<br/>storyboard artist<br/>director
|
|-
| 1995
| Dumb and Dumber
| storyboard artist
|
|-
| 1995–1997
| Dexter's Laboratory
| director<br/>storyboard artist<br/>animation director
|
|-
| 1995
| Mina and the Count
| creator<br/>writer<br/>producer<br/>director
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1998
| Oh Yeah! Cartoons
| producer
| Episode: "The F-Tales"
|-
| The Powerpuff Girls
| writer<br/>storyboard artist<br/>director
|Episode 4.7: Nano of the North<br/>Episode 4.8: Stray Bullet
|-
| 2000
| Family Guy
| director
| Episode 2.18: "E. Peterbus Unum"<br/>Episode 3.6: "Death Lives"
|-
| 2001
| Time Squad
| storyboard artist
| Episode 1.5a: "Dishonest Abe"<br/>Episode 1.12b: "Where the Buffalo Bill Roams"
|-
| 2001–2002
| House of Mouse
| storyboard artist<br/>timing director
|
|-
| 2001–2002, 2017
| Samurai Jack
| sheet timer<br/>director
|
|-
| 2002
| Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?
| supervising producer<br>director
|
|-
| 2003–2009
| My Life as a Teenage Robot
| creator<br>developer<br>writer<br>executive producer<br>director<br>storyboard artist
|
|-
| 2006–2009
| Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
| post supervising director<br>story<br>writer<br>storyboard artist<br>director
|
|-
| 2009
| Random! Cartoons
| sheet timer<br/>director
| Episode: "6 Monsters"
|-
| 2010–2011
| Adventure Time
| sheet timer
|
|-
| 2010–2011
| Sym-Bionic Titan
|sheet timer<br/>animation director
|
|-
| 2010–2011
| My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
| story editor
| Seasons 1 and 2
|-
| 2012–2016
| Gravity Falls
| supervising producer<br/>director<br/>story editor (season 1)
| Episode 2.1: "Scary-Oke"
|-
|2018–2019
|Big City Greens
|executive producer
|
|-
|2021–2022
|Kid Cosmic
|writer<br />director<br/>co-executive producer
|
|}
Internet
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
|2015
| Cartoons VS Cancer
| rowspan="3"|Himself
| rowspan="3"|Podcast
|-
|2016
| Nickelodeon Animation Podcast
|-
|2022
| Mystery Shack Lookback
|}
Bibliography
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Publisher
! ISBN
! Notes
|-
| 2014
| Gravity Falls: Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!
| rowspan="4" |Disney Press
|
| Co-written with Shane Houghton
|-
| 2016
| Gravity Falls: Journal 3
|
| Co-written with Alex Hirsch
|-
| 2018
| DuckTales: Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History
|
| Co-written with Rachel Vine
|-
| 2020
| Onward: Quests of Yore
|
|
|-
| 2023
| The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things
| rowspan="2"| Penguin Workshop
|
|
|-
| 2024
| The Twisted Tower of Endless Torment
|
|
|}
References
External links
- The Teenage Roblog