Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the co-creator of

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

's ''

Rick and Morty {{Infobox television , image = Rick and Morty title card (cropped).png , alt = , caption = , genre = {{Plainlist, * Animated sitcom * Adult animation * Science fiction * Black comedy * ...

'' and its subsequent

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

. He voices the show's titular characters

Rick Sanchez Rick Sanchez is one of the two eponymous characters from the Adult Swim animated television series ''Rick and Morty'' and resulting franchise. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon and voiced by the former, Sanchez is a misanthropic alcoh ...

and

Morty Smith Mortimer Chauncey "Morty" Smith, Sr. is one of the eponymous characters from the American animated television series ''Rick and Morty''. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, and voiced by the former, Morty is a 14-year-old boy loosely ...

. Roiland is the co-creator of

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

's ''

Solar Opposites ''Solar Opposites'' is an American science-fiction animated sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan for Hulu. Originally created for the Fox Broadcasting Company, the project was shelved before being bought by Hulu and given a two-se ...

'', in which he voices the main character, Korvo. He has also played Earl of Lemongrab on ''

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 ...

,'' Blendin Blandin on ''

Gravity Falls ''Gravity Falls'' is an American mystery comedy animated television series created by Alex Hirsch for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (Kristen Schaal) wh ...

'', and Oscar on ''

Fish Hooks ''Fish Hooks'' is an American animated television series created by Noah Z. Jones for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The show ran for three seasons from September 3, 2010 to April 4, 2014, airing a total of 59 episodes. Plot The series revolves ...

''. He founded the animation studio

Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions! Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions! is an animation studio founded by animator and voice actor Justin Roiland. The studio is best known for producing ''Rick and Morty'' for Adult Swim, and ''Solar Opposites'' for Hulu. Productions * ...

and the video game studio

Squanch Games Squanch Games (formerly known as Squanchtendo) is an American video game development studio based in Burbank, California. The company was founded by Justin Roiland in August 2016. The studio is most known for developing '' Accounting'' (2016), ...

Early life

Roiland was born and raised in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

. He attended Sierra High School up until the first quarter of his senior year and then transferred to

Manteca High School Manteca High School is a public, co-educational secondary school in Manteca, California, United States that was established on May 21, 1920. It is the oldest school within Manteca Unified School District. Although originally built with a tower, ...

for the remainder of his senior year, graduating in 1998. After high school he attended

Modesto Junior College Modesto Junior College (MJC) is a public community college in Modesto, California. It is part of Yosemite Community College District along with Columbia College. MJC, and Columbia College, belong to the California Community College system al ...

Modesto Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton ...

, California. Roiland is

dyslexic Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

Career

He got involved with

Channel101 Channel 101 is a non-profit monthly short film festival in Los Angeles, which has a sister festival in New York City, Channel 101 NY. Channel 101 is a creation of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab in which participants submit a short film in the format ...

, an L.A. media collective started by

Dan Harmon Daniel James Harmon (born January 3, 1973) is an American writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator and producer of the NBC/Yahoo! Screen sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), creator and host of the comedy podcast ''Harmontown ...

and

Rob Schrab Robby Christopher Schrab (born November 12, 1969) is an American comic book creator, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is the creator of the comic book '' Scud: The Disposable Assassin'', co-writer of the feature film '' Monster House'', co ...

, where he made and acted in numerous movie shorts (such as ''2 Girls One Cup: The Show'', ''

House of Cosbys ''House of Cosbys'' is an American animated sitcom created by Justin Roiland for the film festival Channel 101. The series centers on Mitchell Reynolds (Jeff B. Davis, Jeff Davis), who builds a cloning machine to make duplicates of his favorite co ...

'' and a small role as musician Christopher Cross in the series ''

Yacht Rock Yacht rock (originally known as the West Coast soundThat ' ...

'') and in the VH1 television show ''

Acceptable TV ''Acceptable.TV'' is a television program created by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab that aired on VH1 from March 23 to May 11, 2007. Each show was composed of several mini-episodes created by the Acceptable.TV staff, with one mini-episode that was subm ...

''. He appeared regularly on ''

The Sarah Silverman Program ''The Sarah Silverman Program'' is an American television sitcom, which ran from February 1, 2007, to April 15, 2010, on Comedy Central starring comedian and actress Sarah Silverman, who created the series with Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab. ''The Sa ...

'' on

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 ...

as "Blonde Craig". From 2010 to 2016, he co-hosted The Grandma's Virginity Podcast with future ''Rick and Morty'' writer, Ryan Ridley, and future ''

Steven Universe ''Steven Universe'' is an American animated series, animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe (character), Steven Universe (Zach Callison), who li ...

'' producer,

Jackie Buscarino Jacqueline "Jackie" Buscarino (born September 11, 1977) is an American voice actress, writer and producer. She has contributed voice-over work to animated series such as ''The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack'', ''Adventure Time'' and ''Gravi ...

. In 2012,

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

approached Harmon to produce a new animated series for their network. Harmon approached Roiland and together, they created ''

'' which debuted in 2013 to widespread acclaim. The show quickly grew a fan community as audiences praised the show for its unique story telling and incorporation of

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

elements. Roiland voices

and his grandson

. In addition to the voice work, Roiland serves as a co-writer and executive producer alongside

. By the end of season 1, ''Rick and Morty'' became one of the most successful shows Adult Swim ever produced. Justin Roiland, XOXO 2015 (cropped)

The success of Rick and Morty spearheaded an entire franchise around it. Various Rick and Morty themed merchandise have been produced and sold. In addition to the show, Rick and Morty maintains an app called "Pocket Mortys". On August 25, 2016, Roiland launched

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

studio Squanchtendo, a portmanteau of the company

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

and ''Rick and Morty'' character

Squanchy Rick and Morty (franchise), ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated multimedia franchise originating with the Adult Swim Rick and Morty, television series of the same name created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, which ...

. It was later renamed to

. Its first full-length title, ''Accounting+'', made in collaboration with William Pugh's studio, was released for

PSVR The PlayStation VR (PS VR, known by its code name Project Morpheus during development) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. It is fully functional with the PlayStation 4 an ...

on December 19, 2017.

Artist

In January 2021, Roiland offered over a dozen artworks in his first NFT art collection, titled "The Best I Could Do". His highest-selling piece was by his Simpsons homage ''The Smintons'', sold at $290,100. The collection sold for a total of $1.65 million. Roiland also sold his first painting, titled ''mypeoplefriend'', via auction by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

in July 2021. On Halloween 2022, Roiland released a generative NFT project named "Art Gobblers" with Paradigm Ventures.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Video games

In August 2016, Roiland set up a video game studio, Squanchtendo, which was later renamed to

in December 2017.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * *
The Grandma's Virginity Podcast

Cartoons, Comics, and stuff by Justin Roiland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roiland, Justin 1980 births Living people 21st-century American comedians Animators from California American male voice actors American male television actors American satirists American surrealist artists American cartoonists American animated film directors American animated film producers American television directors American television writers Comedians from California Journalists from California Male actors from California American male television writers People from Manteca, California People from Stockton, California People with dyslexia Primetime Emmy Award winners Annie Award winners Screenwriters from California Television show creators Showrunners Television producers from California 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers American people of Norwegian descent