Genndy Tartakovsky Biography

GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY

Date of Birth: January 17, 1970

Born in Moscow, it wasn't until Russian-American animator, director, and producer Genndy Tartakovsky moved to the United States that he would set the foundations for his distinct animation style.

Fearful of the effects that anti-Semitism would have on their children, when Genndy was seven, Tartakovksky's parents first moved the family to Italy, before finally choosing to settle in the United States. They first lived in Ohio, then moved to Chicago, where Genndy developed a love for comic books.

As a young man, Tartakovsky enrolled in an advertising class in an effort to become a businessman as per his family's wishes. However, because he registered late, Genndy was instead placed in an animation class.

This class would influence Tartakovsky to first study film at Columbia College Chicago before making a move to Los Angeles to take up animation at the California Institute of the Arts. It was at CalArts that Tartakovsky animated and directed the short film Dexter's Laboratory. Genndy modeled this student film about a boy genius scientist with an annoying older sister after his relationship with his older brother. Little did Tartakovsky know that this rough draft would eventually develop into one of the trademark achievements of his animation career.

The friends that Tartakovsky made at CalArts proved to be quite rewarding as well. Fellow animator Craig McCracken was hired as an art director at Hanna-Barbera: a renowned cartoon studio which had dominated the American animation market for nearly three decades. It would be McCracken who would recommend Hanna-Barbera hire Tartakovsky along with the Nickelodeon series My Life as a Teenage Robot creator Rob Renzetti and Dexter's Laboratory collaborator Paul Ruddish. Working together in a cramped trailer on the studio lot, it was here that Tartakovsky would see his CalArts student film Dexter's Laboratory grow into a sucessful TV series.

Later producing The Powerpuff Girls and then directing The Powerpuff Girls Movie for television, Tartakovsky found his productions nominated for award after award at the 2004 Emmys. That night Genndy walked away with two awards for his work on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars. But this was not the end of Tartakovsky's success, as in 2005 he wound up winning another Emmy award for his direction of the Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series.

Since then, Tartakovsky has worked on various feature film story boards, including Iron Man 2. He made his feature film directorial debut on the 3D-computer animated film Hotel Transylvania. The movie was a box office hit and he has since directed two sequels: Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018).

Tartakovsky is the father of two children with wife Dawn David, whom he married on October 21, 2000.

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