Michael John Roberts, the Canadian director, producer and animator with credits including TripTank, BoJack Rider And Dallas and Robodied. He was 48 years old.
Roberts died peacefully Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family, after a brief battle with glioblastoma.
Roberts, who specializes in adult animated comedy, directed Netflix’s 2017 episodes F is for familywith Bill Burr, and was supervising director on the first season of the TBS animated comedy-drama Final space in 2018.
And in 2023, he directed all 10 episodes of the Apple TV 2023 series. Strange planetco-created by Dan Harmon.
Roberts co-created and directed all 28 episodes of the Comedy Central sketch comedy TripTankwhich ran for two seasons (2014-16) and featured voices from Bob Odenkirk, Curtis Armstrong, Larry David, Niecy Nash, Zach Galifianakis, Kumail Nanjiani and Wayne Brady.
In 2015, he found time to direct title sequences and episodes of the famous Netflix series. BoJack Riderwith Will Arnett and Aaron Paul.
Roberts also created the eight-episode buddy comedy Dallas and Robowhich starred John Cena and Kat Dennings and premiered on YouTube Red in 2018. Always a proponent of science fiction, he called it “Smokey and the Bandit in space. »
TripTank, BoJack Rider, Dallas and Robo And Final space all came from the animation studio and production company ShadowMachine.
Roberts was born on December 20, 1977 and raised in Toronto; his mother, Wendy, was a doctor and his father, Teddy, a mechanic.
“I always wanted to be a comic book artist growing up,” he said in a 2021 interview. “But somewhere in there I found out that they did the lightning bolts on the DeLorean in Back to the future by hand and decided this was the job for me! »
He studied animation at Sheridan College in Ontario and worked in Toronto, New York and London before moving in the late 1990s to Los Angeles, where he worked on shows including Angela Anaconda, The hooves And Rat Fink Tales.
In 2012, he won the Juno Award for Video of the Year for creating and directing a six-minute Western-style animated short film titled Seat rumble which featured Canadian band The Sadies.
Along the way, he also directed commercials for Honda, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, ABC and Pulse Electric Scooters.
Roberts also worked for Mattel Television and most recently served as executive producer and creative producer on the series Hot Wheels Let’s Race: Attack of the T-Rex and executive producer on Masters of the Universe: Tales of Eternia for Mattel and Netflix. He also directed the pilot for the animated special Garden sports and directed the first season of MrBeast Laboratory and served as a consulting writer and producer on the second season.
In addition to his parents, survivors include his wife, actress Bree Williamson; their teenage son, McGreggor; his sister, Jane; niece, Gwen and nephew, Vaughan. He was also close to his cousin Hrothgar, whom he considered a brother, as well as his wife, Emily, and their children, Evie and Lili.
McGreggor “was a source of immense pride,” his wife wrote in memory of her husband. “Michael wanted only the best for himself and saw possibilities in the young man he was becoming greater than he could ever have imagined for himself. He was already deeply proud of the life his son was building and excited for all that lay ahead.”
McGreggor, Bree and Mike Roberts
Courtesy of Bree Roberts
When asked last year what advice he would give to newcomers, Roberts replied: “Do what you want to do. Because everyone in this business wants you to have already done it. So if you’re a writer, you have to have a script. If you’re a director, you have to have a short film. If you’re an animator, you have to have a cartoon…be a personality that can’t be ignored.
“It’s a small group of people putting all the pieces together. So that should be really encouraging. If you can put the energy together, you’ll get there. Because the line is shorter than you think.”
Aaron Couch contributed to this report.
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