Loren Hal Bouchard (born October 10, 1969) is an American animator, writer, producer, director, and composer. He is the creator of several animated TV shows such as ''

Bob's Burgers ''Bob's Burgers'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Loren Bouchard that premiered on Fox on January 9, 2011. The show centers on the Belcher family—parents Bob and Linda and their three children, Tina, Gene, and Louise—wh ...

'', ''

Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil ''Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil'' is an American adult computer-animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim. It was created and directed by Loren Bouchard (who later made the Fox show ''Bob ...

'', and ''

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

''. He is also the co-creator of ''

Home Movies A home movie is a short amateur film or video typically made just to preserve a visual record of family activities, a vacation, or a special event, and intended for viewing at home by family and friends. Originally, home movies were made on p ...

'' with Brendon Small as well as the executive producer of '' The Great North''.

Early life

Bouchard was born in New York City to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

mother and a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

father. He grew up in

Medford, Massachusetts Medford is a city northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus al ...

Career

A high school dropout, Bouchard was working as a bartender in 1993 when he bumped into a former grade school teacher of his,

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...

, who asked if Bouchard was still drawing, and offered Bouchard a chance to work on a few animated short films Snyder was making. The shorts developed into Bouchard's first series, '' Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist'', which he produced. He credits

Jonathan Katz Jonathan Paul Katz (born December 1, 1946) is an American actor and comedian best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom '' Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist'' as Dr. Katz. He also is known for voicing Erik Robbins in the UPN/Adult S ...

, H. Jon Benjamin, and Snyder as major influences."Ten Questions: Lauren Bouchard"
IGN, November 16, 2004 ''Dr. Katz'' ran for six seasons, from 1995 to 2000. He also produced one season of ''

Science Court ''Science Court'' (retitled ''Squigglevision'' in 1998) is an educational entertainment, animation/ non-traditional court show from Tom Snyder Productions, which was aired on ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning block from 1997 to 2000. The cart ...

'', another animated show made by Soup2Nuts. Towards the end of ''Dr. Katz'', Bouchard and Brendon Small teamed up to create ''

''. The show was picked up initially by UPN, which dropped it after five episodes; the remaining eight episodes from season one, and the subsequent three seasons, were shown on Adult Swim. The show was not renewed after the conclusion of the fourth season in 2004. After ''Home Movies'' concluded and another Bouchard pilot, ''Saddle Rash'', was not picked up, Bouchard created ''

''. The show's pilot was created on October 30, 2005, but it was not until September 2007 that the show debuted as a weekly feature on Adult Swim. He was a consulting producer on HBO's '' The Ricky Gervais Show''. Loren Bouchard by Gage Skidmore

In 2009, Bouchard got together with '' King of the Hill'' writer and producer Jim Dauterive and developed ''

'', an animated series about a family working at a hamburger restaurant. Bouchard grew up in a working-class family full of "blue collar creatives" and created ''Bob's Burgers'' because he didn't see that kind of life represented on TV. In 2010, Fox placed the series on the primetime slate for the 2010–11 television season. A special preview aired on Thanksgiving on November 25, 2010. When the series premiered, it received mixed reviews with a

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

score of 54 out of 100. However, as the first season progressed and concluded and the second began, critics began giving the series praise. The show has generally been viewed as a spiritual successor to ''King of the Hill'', which carried less emphasis on shock comedy and focused more on character-driven humor. A

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

based on the animated TV series was released on May 27, 2022. and serves as Bouchard's feature directorial debut.

Personal life

Bouchard lives in

Los Angeles 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 his wife, Holly Kretschmar. The couple married on September 3, 2006. The couple have two sons.

Filmography

Series

Films

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouchard, Loren American animated film directors American animated film producers 1969 births Living people Animators from New York (state) Animators from Massachusetts American audio engineers American male screenwriters American male voice actors American television writers American television composers American television directors Jewish American television composers Jewish American writers Male actors from Massachusetts Male actors from New York City American male television writers Male television composers People from Medford, Massachusetts Television producers from New York City Composers from New York City Writers from New York City 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American pianists Showrunners Film directors from New York City Film directors from Massachusetts Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriters from Massachusetts Engineers from New York City American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American Jews American musical theatre composers Male musical theatre composers