Amy Winfrey (born May 1976) is an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, songwriter, director and voice actress. She is best known for creating the web series '' Making Fiends'' that was later picked up by Nickelodeon in 2008, and for directing several episodes of ''

BoJack Horseman ''BoJack Horseman'' is an American adult animation, adult animated Black comedy, black Comedy drama, comedy-drama streaming television series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F ...

'', including " The View From Halfway Down" and "

Free Churro "Free Churro" is the sixth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series ''BoJack Horseman'', and the 55th overall episode of the series. It was written by series creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and directed by Amy Winfrey ...

", which were each nominated for a

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually to an animated series. In the following list, the first titles listed in gold are the winners; those not in gold are nominees, which ...

at the 71st and 72nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmys.

Career

Winfrey studied animation at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and made a

3D film 3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. They have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion pict ...

called ''The Bad Plant'', which won her a silver medal at the

Student Academy Awards The Student Academy Awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an annual competition for college and university filmmakers. Description The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first ...

in 2000. While attending school, Winfrey worked as an animator on ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

'' starting with the pilot episode, ' ''The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa''' in 1995. When

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

picked up the series, Winfrey remained part of the animation team and continued to work on the show, pausing her schooling to work on the feature film '' South Park Bigger, Longer & Uncut''. In a UCLA class, Winfrey made a website dedicated to traffic cones. Because of many visitors on the traffic cone website, Winfrey decided to create a series of short web cartoons, and the result was ''Muffin Films''. The first was created as a thesis project in 2000 and lasted twelve episodes, one for each muffin in a dozen. The series explored different styles of Flash animation through twelve different shorts, using muffins as the subject of the stories. To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Muffin Films, Amy Winfrey created six additional cartoons for the series. In 2001'','' Winfrey created another web series, ''Big Bunny.'' Winfrey provided all of the voice acting, except for the eponymous character who is voiced by her husband, Peter Merryman. Winfrey pitched it as a series for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

in 2002, but neither picked it up. In 2008, Winfrey started ''Squid and Frog'', short cartoons about a red squid and an orange frog, who sing about various things, such as that you can't learn surgery from television. In 2012, Winfrey created an animated series concept for

Disney Television Animation Disney Television Animation (DTVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is the television animation production arm of Disney Branded Television, a sub-division of the Disney G ...

titled ''Lucky Beast'', featuring the voice of

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in ''R ...

as the title character, but it was never picked up. On 6 October 2018, Winfrey released a web cartoon called ''Hooray For Hell'', co-created by Peter Merryman. The series is about a girl who wakes up in Hell after voting for president and gets a ticket to Heaven. There are three episodes available on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. They can be found by clicking the link in the description of the trailer on Winfrey's main channel. After a hiatus, the show's final two episodes were uploaded on May 27, 2020.

''Making Fiends''

Winfrey created '' Making Fiends'' in 2003 as a web cartoon. The series has 21 episodes created between 2003 and 2005. Winfrey voiced several characters, including

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

. Winfrey was able to produce web animation full time after she began selling merchandise of her characters online.

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

contacted Winfrey in early 2004 about bringing ''Making Fiends'' on TV. The series only had one season, airing from October 4 to November 1, 2008, on the secondary channel Nicktoons Network.

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

, now

Paramount Global Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...

, retained the rights to the property after the series was canceled. Despite the limited run, the series was named "Best Television Series" at

Annecy International Animation Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

in 2008.

Recent work

For a five-year period between 2014 and 2019, Winfrey worked as director on all six seasons of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

animated series ''

,'' typically working on three episodes per season, including some of the series' most notable episodes, Zoës and Zeldas, Brand New Couch, Hank After Dark,

Thoughts and Prayers The phrase "thoughts and prayers" is often used by officials and celebrities in the United States as a condolence after a tragic event, such as a deadly natural disaster or mass shooting. The phrase has received criticism for its repeated usag ...

, Ruthie,

The New Client "The New Client" is the second episode of the sixth season of Netflix's animated comedy-drama television series '' BoJack Horseman''. Directed by Amy Winfrey and written by Nick Adams, it was released on Netflix on October 25, 2019, alongside ...

, and the show's penultimate episode, ' The View From Halfway Down.' She was nominated twice for the

by the

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

for "Free Churro" and "The View From Halfway Down". She also worked on the second season of ' Greatest Party Story Ever', an animated episode of ''

Adam Ruins Everything ''Adam Ruins Everything'' is an American educational comedy television series starring Adam Conover that ran from 2015 through 2019 on TruTV. The series endeavors to debunk common misconceptions held by the public on a variety of topics. Premise ...

,'' the first season of ''

Tuca & Bertie ''Tuca & Bertie'' is an American animated sitcom created by cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt for Netflix. It began streaming on May 3, 2019. It stars Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong, with a supporting cast including Steven Yeun, John Early, Richard E. Gra ...

'', and is currently a supervising producer on '' Velma''.

Personal life

Winfrey resides in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with her husband, Peter Merryman. She has also been an educator teaching animation at the UCLA Animation Workshop.

Web series

''Muffin Films''

Episode list

''Big Bunny (2001)''

Episode list

Directing Credits

''BoJack Horseman'' episodes

Season One * " Zoës and Zeldas" * "The Telescope" * "Downer Ending" Season Two * " Brand New Couch" * "Still Broken" * " Hank After Dark" * "Escape from L.A." Season Three * "BoJack Kills" * "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew" * "Best Thing That Ever Happened" * "That Went Well" Season Four * "See Mr. Peanutbutter Run" * "

" * " Ruthie" Season Five * "The Dog Days Are Over" * "

" * "Head in the Clouds" Season Six * "

" * "A Quick One, While He's Away" * "Sunk Cost and All That" * " The View From Halfway Down"