Natasha Allegri (born June 18, 1986) is an American animation creator, writer, storyboard artist, storyboard revisionist, and comic book artist. She is the creator of

Cartoon Hangover Cartoon Hangover is a Frederator internet television channel and adult animation division, part of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative, launched in February 2012. Frederator produced two animated series exclusively for the Internet: ''Bravest ...

's and

Frederator Studios Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. (Seibert resigned from Frederator in Augus ...

Bee and PuppyCat ''Bee and PuppyCat'' is an American adult animated streaming television series created and written by Natasha Allegri. The series revolves around Bee (voiced by Allyn Rachel), an unemployed woman in her early twenties, who encounters a mysteri ...

'', and is also noted for her work as a storyboard revisionist and character designer for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

's ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

'', for which she created the characters Fionna and Cake, genderswap versions of Finn & Jake.

Early life

Born in June 1986, Allegri is the daughter of an Okinawan mother and a

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

n father of French,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and Native Bolivian descent. Allegri grew up in

Inverness, Florida Inverness is a city in Citrus County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census,the population was 7,543. It is the county seat of Citrus County and is home to the Citrus County Courthouse and near the Flying Eagle Preserve. Geography In ...

. In high school and college, she made comics about her life that she posted to

LiveJournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...

, which is how she met

Pendleton Ward Ward Taylor Pendleton Johnston (born September 23, 1982), known professionally as Pendleton Ward or simply Pen Ward, is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor who has worked for Cartoon Network Studios, Freder ...

''Adventure Time''

While in college at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in Tucson, her friend, and creator of ''

'',

, contacted her about working on ''Adventure Time'' and she worked on the show for five seasons. While working on the show, Allegri began drawing gender-swapped web comics of the show's characters, including ''

Fionna and Cake "Fionna and Cake" is the ninth episode of the third season of the American animated television series ''Adventure Time''. The episode was written and storyboarded by Adam Muto and Rebecca Sugar, from a story by Mark Banker, Kent Osborne, Patric ...

'' as her gender-swapped versions of Finn and Jake. Eventually, after being showcased on

Frederator Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. (Seibert resigned from Frederator in Augus ...

's popular ''

'' tumblr, these characters were featured in full episodes of ''Adventure Time''. Since August 6, 2013, she has also written and illustrated ''Fionna and Cake'' comics for

BOOM! Studios Boom! Studios (styled BOOM! Studios) is an American comic book and graphic novel publisher, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Origins In the early 2000s, Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby had been working in Holly ...

''Bee and PuppyCat''

Allegri created and produced her own animated short, ''

'', for

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 ...

channel

which was released on July 11, 2013. The episode introduces viewers to Bee, a recently unemployed young woman, and PuppyCat, a small and mysterious creature resembling both a dog and a cat. Bee takes PuppyCat in and, in return, he helps her find strange temp work, in this case babysitting a giant fish named Wallace in Fishbowl Space. In response to the success of the short,

launched a Kickstarter on October 14, 2013, to raise funds for a full season. The Kickstarter was successful, raising Frederator $872,133 toward the production of ''Bee and PuppyCat'', the animated series. This exceeded their original goal of $600,000 and made them the 10th most funded Video and Film project to date.

Crowdfunding success

Natasha Allegri's successful campaign on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

has been seen as an example of digital-age

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

mechanisms' role on enabling creators reliant on direct fan investment.

Comic books

Allegri has created multiple

graphic novels A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

starring "

" and "

", respectively. Bee and Puppycat: * Bee and Puppycat #1, created with Garrett Jackson. * Bee and Puppycat #2, created with Garrett Jackson. * Bee and Puppycat #3, created with Madeleine Flores, Ian McGinty, Anissa Espinosa, and Tait Howard. * Bee and Puppycat #4, created with T. Zysk, Mad Rupert, Coleman Engle, Aimee Fleck, Pranas Naujokaitis, and Anissa Espinosa. * Bee and Puppycat, Vol. 1 (#1-4), created with the aforementioned. * Bee and Puppycat #5, created with T. Zysk, Chrystin Garland, Flynn Nicholls, and Meredith McClaren. * Bee and Puppycat #6, created with Andrew Lorenzi, Joy Ang, Meredith McClaren, and Carey Pietsch. * Bee and Puppycat #7, created with Garrett Jackson. * Bee and Puppycat #8, created with David Calderón, Liz Fleming, Coleman Engle, Reimena Yee, and T. Zysk. * Bee and Puppycat, Vol. 2 (#5-8), created with the aforementioned. * Bee and Puppycat #9, created (without the help of Natasha Allegri) by Patrick Seery, and Ji in Kim. Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake: * Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #1, created with ND Stevenson. * Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #2, created with

Lucy Knisley Lucy Knisley (born January 11, 1985) is an American comic artist and musician. Her work is often autobiographical, and food is a common theme. Knisley's drawn travel journal ''French Milk'' was published through Simon & Schuster in October 2008 ...

. * Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #3, created by Natasha Allegri. * Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #4, created by Natasha Allegri. * Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #5, created with

. * Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #6, created with Betty Liang. * Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake, Vol. 1, created with

, and Kate Leth.

Influences

Allegri has named several of her influences including works by

Rumiko Takahashi is a Japanese manga artist. With a career of several commercially successful works, beginning with ''Urusei Yatsura'' in 1978, Takahashi is one of Japan's best-known and wealthiest manga artists. Her works are popular worldwide, where they have ...

, ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 52 individual chapters were published in 18 volumes. The seri ...

'' and '' Superbook'', as well 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—who r ...

'' and her cat, Pancake.

Other work

Allegri sang the theme song for the Fionna and Cake episode of ''Adventure Time''. Additionally, she served as a storyboard revisionist for the ''

Bravest Warriors ''Bravest Warriors'' is an American-Canadian animated series. Set onwards from the year 3085, it follows four teenage heroes-for-hire as they warp through the universe to save adorable aliens and their worlds using the power of their emotions. It ...

'' episode "Butter Lettuce" and has contributed to the miniseries ''

Over the Garden Wall ''Over the Garden Wall'' is an American animated television miniseries created by Patrick McHale for Cartoon Network. The series centers on two half-brothers who travel across a mysterious forest to find their way home, encountering a variet ...

'' as writer and storyboard artist. She also provided the official art for the

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

soundbank ''Ruby'', released by

PowerFX PowerFX Systems AB is a small recording company, based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company has been producing music samples, loops and sound effects since 1995. They also developed singing synthesizers using the VOCALOID engine developed by Yamaha ...

. This art was based upon a concept design by illustrator D-Artemisso. In 2017, Allegri directed "The Summoning," created by Elyse Castro, for

channel. It is the first short cartoon from GO! Cartoons. In 2019, Allegri was co-author of the

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by forking NetBSD 1.0. According to the website, the OpenBSD project em ...

6.5 poster and was the author of the OpenBSD 6.6 and 7.0 posters. She is a writer for the anime series ''

Cannon Busters ''Cannon Busters'' is an American fantasy comic book series by LeSean Thomas, launched in March 2005. An original net animation anime series by Satelight and Yumeta Company was released on Netflix on August 15, 2019. Publication history The fi ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allegri, Natasha Living people 1986 births American female comics artists American people of Bolivian descent American people of French descent American writers of Italian descent American people of Okinawan descent American storyboard artists American voice actresses American women television producers American television writers American women television writers People from Inverness, Florida Screenwriters from Florida Television producers from Florida 21st-century American women