Genndy Tartakovsky

Genndy Tartakovsky
Years active at Hanna-Barbera	1994-2001

Gennady Borisovich Tartakovsky (Russian: Геннадий Борисович Тартаковский), commonly known as Genndy Tartakovsky, is an Russian-American animator, writer, producer, and director. He is known for creating shows on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim such as Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Primal. He is also known for directing the first three films of the Hotel Transylvania series for Sony Pictures Animation, as well as writing the series' fourth film. His first job in the entertainment industry was at Hanna-Barbera during the 1990s, of which Cartoon Network Studios was a division of prior to the former's closure in 2001.

Tartakovsky was interviewed by Space Ghost in the 1995 Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "President's Day Nightmare," with his Dexter's Laboratory/What a Cartoon!/Dexter's Laboratory short up against the shorts of other creators, including Craig McCracken, Van Partible, and Eugene Mattos, but lost to McCracken.

Behind the scenes

• Tartakovsky is a Star Wars fan, which was the reason why George Lucas invited him to create the Star Wars: Clone Wars miniseries in 2003.
• He cites the cartoons of Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and Chuck Jones, as well as old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, as one of his influences of his works.
  • Ironically in the case of Hanna-Barbera, when he got access to watch the tapes of their shows at his job on Cartoon Network, he found them to be too corny for him to enjoy as an adult the same way as he did when he was a child.
  • Back when both he and Craig McCracken were working on Dexter's Laboratory, McCracken had put a quote on Genndy's office door that said "Make the cartoons we thought we watched as kids".
• Before his family moved to the United States in 1977, the only piece of animation Tartakovsky knew back in Russia was Nu, pogodi! (Well, Just You Wait!), a series of animated shorts made in his home country.

Where to find him

• He's on Instagram