Rob Renzetti is a veteran of TV animation, whose work on Cartoon Network’s Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends earned him an Emmy Award. He created My Life as a Teenage Robot for Nickelodeon, and has worked on various shows as a storyboard artist, writer, story editor, director, and producer. His most recent credits include co-executive producer for Netflix’s Kid Cosmic, executive producer on the first two seasons of Disney’s Big City Greens, and supervising producer for Disney’s Gravity Falls. Other notable credits include The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and Family Guy.

Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Rob spent his time watching cartoons, drawing cartoons, and dreaming of going to cartoon college. After getting a degree in art history from the University of Illinois, he discovered that cartoon college was real. He promptly shredded his diploma, and drove cross-country to study animation at the California Institute of the Arts. After a brief stint as an animator in Spain, he returned to Los Angeles to join Hanna-Barbera Studios as a storyboard artist working on 2 Stupid Dogs, and later worked on Dexter’s Laboratory as a storyboard artist, writer, and director.

While at Hanna-Barbera, Renzetti created his first original property in the form of a seven-minute short called Mina and the Count: Interlude with a Vampire. Soon after, Rob moved on to Nickelodeon and created ten more original shorts, five of which followed the further adventures of Mina and her vampiric best friend. The last short he created featured a teenage robotic superhero named Jenny, and was eventually turned into the series, My Life as a Teenage Robot (known to some loyal fans as MLAATR).

 

Upon the completion of Teenage Robot, Renzetti began teaming up with other creators to bring their concepts to life for Hasbro, Cartoon Network, Netflix, and Disney. While at Disney, he published four books: Gravity Falls: Dipper’s and Mabel’s Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun, Ducktales: Solving Mysteries and Rewriting History, Onward: Quests of Yore, and The New York Times #1 Best Seller, Gravity Falls: Journal 3. 

Renzetti is currently writing a trilogy for middle graders, and it has the same supernatural sensibilities and engrossing fantastical elements as his past work. The first installment, The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things, will be published by Penguin Random House in 2023.

When he’s not coming up with stories for cartoons and books, Rob spends his time playing board games and watching horror movies. He resides in Southern California with his wife and their mischievous rabbit, Digby Flopwell.