The Patriarch of the Griffin family has no idea what the word "patriarch" means. While Peter likes an occassional adult beverage at The Drunken Clam, his real passions are harebrained schemes and public nudity.
Emmy Award-winning creative force Seth MacFarlane began his career studying animation and design at the Rhode Island School of Design. While in school, MacFarlane created an animated short film entitled "The Life of Larry." The film impressed executives at Hanna-Barbera, who then encouraged MacFarlane to move to Los Angeles in 1995 to create and direct a short film for them. After moving to the West Coast, he went on to work on numerous animated series, including "Ace Ventura," "Jungle Cubs" and "Johnny Bravo."
Shortly after, MacFarlane's talent was noted by executives at FOX who made him an offer to create a pilot for the network. Over the next six months, MacFarlane created, animated, wrote, directed and provided all the main male characters' voices for what became FAMILY GUY. The seven-minute short was delivered in May 1998, and was picked up just weeks later. At age 24, MacFarlane was the youngest executive producer in television.
In the years that FAMILY GUY has been on the air, MacFarlane has received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his role as "Stewie Griffin" and for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for FAMILY GUY in 2002. In 2009, FAMILY GUY became the only animated show since "The Flintstones" in 1961 to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Comedy. Previously, FAMILY GUY garnered three nominations for Outstanding Animated Series.
In addition to FAMILY GUY, MacFarlane also serves as co-creator/executive producer/voice actor on AMERICAN DAD and THE CLEVELAND SHOW. He also just wrapped production on his first live-action feature film, "Ted," on which he was the director and co-writer.
MacFarlane is bringing another animated classic to television with the (pre)historic return of THE FLINTSTONES which will feature MacFarlane's modern-day take on the lives of the Flintstones and the Rubbles, two hard-working middle-class families living with contemporary conveniences in the dinosaur-era town of Bedrock. THE FLINTSTONES will begin production this fall and will be set in stone on the FOX schedule in 2013.
Most recently, MacFarlane teamed up with Carl Sagan's original creative collaborators - writer/producer Ann Druyan and astrophysicist Steven Soter - to conceive a 13-part "docu-series" called COSMOS: A SPACE-TIME ODYSSEY that will serve as a successor to the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original series. The series will air on FOX in 2013.
MacFarlane lives in Los Angeles.
