Glitch Productions (also known simply as Glitch; formerly Glitchy Boy or Glitchy Boy Productions) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

animation studio An animation studio is a company producing animation, animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales ...

based in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

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. The studio was founded in 2017 by producer Kevin Lerdwichagul and animator Luke Lerdwichagul, who is known for being the creator of the

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

machinima Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...

''SMG4''. Glitch is known for independently producing and funding animated

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

such as ''

Meta Runner ''Meta Runner'' is an Australian independent-animated eSports action drama web series created by Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul. Produced by Glitch Productions, with funding support from Screen Australia, Crunchyroll, AMD, and Epic Games. The ...

'', ''Sunset Paradise'', '' Murder Drones'', '' The Amazing Digital Circus'', and '' The Gaslight District.'' Glitch's founders were featured in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' 30 Under 30 list for Media, Marketing, and Advertising in 2023.

History

Background

Co-founder Luke Lerdwichagul started making

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

videos in 2009. On 7 May 2011, at the age of 11, Luke created his first web series; a ''

Super Mario 64 ''Super Mario 64'' is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combini ...

''-based

later to be known as ''SMG4'' (an acronym of his YouTube channel name, "SuperMarioGlitchy4"). Produced using footage from an

emulated In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use perip ...

version of ''Super Mario 64'', the series originally focused

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

and other characters from the greater ''Mario'' franchise going on adventures that often involve

parodies A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can als ...

internet memes An Internet meme, or meme (, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through social media platforms. Internet memes manifest in a variety of formats, including images, v ...

and

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. Over time, the series would begin using ''

Garry's Mod ''Garry's Mod'', commonly clipped as ''GMod'', is a 2006 sandbox game developed by Facepunch Studios and published by Valve. The base game mode of ''Garry's Mod'' has no set objectives and provides the player with a world in which to fre ...

'' (which uses the game engine

Source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...

as a base), and featured a more prominent cast of original characters. Between 2014 and 2016, the channel would experience significant growth in popularity going from 100,000 subscribers at the beginning of 2014 to 1,000,000 subscribers by the end of 2016. Around 2016, Luke's older brother, Kevin Lerdwichagul, had observed the channel and its wide audience. He saw the potential to form a business around the channel, later joining ''SMG4'' as a full-time writer and producer. Luke took on a directing role, as well as voicing his titular author surrogate character. In interviews, the brothers have acknowledged their use of copyrighted characters from

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and other third-parties in their videos. However, they were always careful to never place such characters in hateful or defamatory context.

Formation

On 24 May 2017, Luke uploaded a

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video to the ''SMG4'' channel, where he briefly mentioned that he founded a company, dubbed Glitchy Boy, to represent the ''SMG4'', ''Hobo Bros.'', and "TheAwesomeMario" YouTube channels. On 5 September 2018, a more formal announcement video was uploaded called "SMG4 Direct (HUGE CHANNEL UPDATE)", where Kevin and Luke fully explained the concept of their company, now rebranded as Glitch Productions. During the video, they also unveiled ''Hitbox'', a

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

series starring Kevin and Luke acting as various

characters. On 5 December 2018, following multiple teasers on the ''SMG4'' channel, Glitch released the trailer for ''

'', and the first episode premiered on 25 July 2019. The series was funded by

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

, and became the top-performing online investment from the company, racking up 10 million+ viewers across its first season. ''Meta Runner'' was later reuploaded to the Glitch Productions YouTube channel. The first season was also financed with support from

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

and

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, and was produced in association with

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

. On 20 April 2020, Screen Australia announced that they would be funding a second season of ''

''.

2020–present

On 27 August 2020, Glitch officially separated the ''SMG4'' channel from Glitch, and created the GLITCH channel to focus on its non-''SMG4'' projects. Its first videos released that day would be an announcement video and the first season of ''Meta Runner'' remade in Movie format. They would soon after release the pilot to ''Ultra Jump Mania'' (a spin-off of ''Meta Runner'' that would later be cancelled) and season 2 of ''Meta Runner''. On 12 March 2021, Glitch unveiled an ''SMG4'' spin-off centered on the SMG4 character Meggy Spletzer called ''Sunset Paradise''. The pilot would be released on 26 March 2021. On 12 May 2021, the show received online production funding from Screen Australia. On 9 October 2021, it was announced that Glitch would be releasing a pilot titled '' Murder Drones'' on 29 October, created, written, and directed by Liam Vickers. While earlier Glitch projects were essentially created on a monetary loss, ''Murder Drones'' greatly outperformed expectations and received millions of views per episode. On 1 September 2023, Glitch announced that they would be hosting a livestreaming event called "GlitchX" on 9 November 2023; where they would announce their upcoming show, '' The Gaslight District'', in collaboration with animator Nick Szopko which went on to release its pilot episode on 18 April 2025. On 13 October 2023, the pilot for '' The Amazing Digital Circus'', a series created in collaboration with Gooseworx, was released. The pilot garnered 100 million views in its first month, becoming the most popular indie animation video. ''The Amazing Digital Circus'' would also increase Glitch's notoriety, garnering news coverage, as well as their YouTube channel eventually reaching 10 million subscribers and 1 billion total views. On 7 June 2024, the company would launch a subscription service to help fund their programming called "Glitch Inn". On 5 July 2024, Glitch launched FinalFinal_Project, a merchandise company that helps funding with other shows, with Iron Circus Animation, the producers of the '' Lackadaisy'' animated adaptation, being their first partners. On 4 October 2024, following prior rumours, Glitch officially announced the debut of ''The Amazing Digital Circus'' to

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. It is the first Glitch production to be available on the platform. Glitch has stated that Netflix will have no creative control over the series, and new episodes would continue to premiere on YouTube first. On 17 January 2025, Glitch announced their first 2D animated series ''Knights of Guinevere'' in collaboration with ''

The Owl House ''The Owl House'' is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that aired on Disney Channel from January 10, 2020, to April 8, 2023. The series features the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hi ...

'' alumni Dana Terrace, John Bailey Owen, and Zach Marcus. It is tentatively scheduled to premiere sometime in 2025. The series will also be Glitch's first co-production, being co-produced by the Irish animation company Studio Meala. On 10 March 2025, it was announced that the web animation group ZAMination would be partnering with Glitch to creatively direct Glitch's future marketing campaigns. On 16 May 2025, Glitch announced that ''Murder Drones'' had been added to

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

. Earlier rumours had circulated about the show's addition, after the Italian and Turkish accounts for Prime Video accidentally revealed the news in advance. Prime Video will also support Glitch's future shows in a multi-title deal, with all shows being shown on both YouTube and Prime Video.

Controversies

In March 2024, Glitch was accused of firing Celeste Notley-Smith, the voice actress for Tari from ''Meta Runner'' and ''SMG4'', in a callous manner, and recasting her with Lottie Bourne, which led to allegations against the studio and confusion among fans. Notley-Smith wrote on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that she was not notified of her role being recast. Several days later, she released a statement in which she explained that after discovering she had been recast, she reached out to the Lerdwichaguls, asking why she was removed from her role without contact from the team. It was later stated by general manager Jasmine Yang that it was down to a communication error on her (Yang's) part. Despite this, Robyn Barry-Cotter, the voice actress for Theo from ''Meta Runner'', left Glitch Productions due to the controversy, which also left one of the ''SMG4'' characters without a voice. The studio was additionally alleged of longer work hours, blacklisting of ex-employees, and harassment, largely from Kevin Lerdwichagul. On 4 March 2024, Kevin released a statement via Glitch's social media outlets addressing the controversies, doubling as an apology to workers who had negative experience with the company. Kevin additionally claimed the studio had faced prior issues due to being short-staffed, but had largely resolved worker conditions by 2023.

Filmography

Animation

Live-action

Upcoming

References

External links

* {{Animation industry in Australia 2017 establishments in Australia Animation-related YouTube channels Australian companies established in 2017 Australian animation studios Companies based in Sydney YouTube channels YouTube channels launched in 2018 Adult animation studios