Matthew Benjakarn "Matt" Braly (born November 8, 1988 in Sacramento, California) is an American animator, director, and producer who is the creator and executive-producer of the Disney animated series Amphibia, a show he based upon his own childhood experiences with his friend-group and heritage as a second-generation Thai immigrant visiting his family's home country.
Prior to creating his own show, Braly worked briefly as a storyboard artist on the Dreamworks Animation film Turbo, before becoming a storyboard artist and director on Gravity Falls, winning an Annie Award for his directorial work on "Northwest Mansion Mystery". He would briefly work as a storyboard artist on other shows and later work as a director on Big City Greens before starting Amphibia.
His next project will be an animated fantasy
film at Sony Pictures Animation. He will direct and co-write alongside Rebecca Sugar based on his own experiences.
Tropes found in Matt Braly's work include:
- Animation Bump: Had a hand in the case in the Gravity Falls episode "Not What He Seems", having been a key animator for the closing sequence.
- Creator Backlash: He isn't too fond of the cartoonish character designs in Turbo, for which he was an storyboard artist. So much that, when it came to designing snails for Amphibia, he tried to make them as un-cartoonish as possible.
- Descended Creator: He has provided the voices of Chuck, Frobo, the Seamstress, and other miscellanous characters in Amphibia.
- Epileptic Trees: Purposefully invoked in the Amphibia episode "True Colors". He expected that, by including cameos-througth-drawing of Goliath from Gargoyles and Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls, fans would begin to speculate about a multiverse of Disney Television Animation series.
- Promoted Fanboy: He is a big fan of Keith David's work on Gargoyles and The Princess and the Frog. And when he started creating the character of King Andrias in Amphibia, he did it with David in mind, and David eventually landed the role.
- What Could Have Been: Braly originally wanted to work as a storyboard artist for Pixar and had no plans to create a TV series. However, he settled for working at Disney TVA after failing for the fourth or fifth time to apply for a job.
- Write What You Know:
- Anne Boonchuy, the protagonist of his show, is a second-generation Thai-American, just like Braly. He based a lot of Anne's experiences on his own, and the episode "Temple Frogs" in particular feature a lot of Thai traditions that Matt grew up with. He was also inspired by a picture of his grandmother as a child for her design.
- Braly was also inspired by his real life experiences in Thailand for the story in Amphibia.
- He also drew inspiration for the relationship between Anne and her human friends in Amphibia from friendships he had in his youth. He particularly based Marcy on himself.
