Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 03:10, 9 December 2024

Lauren Faust
Faust in 2014
Born	Lauren J. Faust (1974-07-25) July 25, 1974 (age 50) San Jose, California, U.S.
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Occupation(s)	Animator, writer, storyboard artist
Years active	1994–present
Known for	My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic DC Super Hero Girls Super Best Friends Forever
Spouse	Craig McCracken ​(m. 2004)​
Children	1
Awards	2009 Primetime Emmy Award

Lauren J. Faust (born July 25, 1974) is an American animator, writer, director, and producer. She is known for developing the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and DC Super Hero Girls. Faust has collaborated with her husband Craig McCracken on his four animated series The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, and Kid Cosmic.

Career

Faust attended the California Institute of Arts from 1992 to 1994. She started working in the animation industry as a character layouts artist for the character Julie from the MTV animated television series The Maxx, before becoming an animator at Turner Feature Animation and Warner Bros Feature Animation, where she worked as an animator on feature films such as Cats Don't Dance, Quest for Camelot, and The Iron Giant.

Faust shifted to television animation in 1999, working on The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends at Cartoon Network Studios as a storyboard artist, screenwriter, supervising producer, story supervisor. Faust created and developed the toy line Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls.

Faust worked with Hasbro to develop the company's My Little Pony property, resulting in the series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The series proved to be a major success not only with the primary young audience, but also significantly among adults and teenagers, who became popularly known as "bronies". She developed Super Best Friends Forever for Warner Brothers, and Medusa for Sony Pictures Animation, though Sony changed the creative direction of Medusa, with Faust leaving the project. She worked with her husband Craig McCracken on Wander Over Yonder for Disney and Kid Cosmic for Netflix.

Faust worked with Warner Bros. in 2019 to develop a reboot of DC Super Hero Girls. As of 2021, she was developing an animated series for Netflix Animation, called Toil & Trouble. However, the series was cancelled by August of that year due to a change in leadership. Faust mentioned in April 2022 that she managed to retain the rights to the show, and was hoping some other network would pick it up eventually.

In 2011, Faust offered to design new characters for the fangame My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic after a cease and desist from Hasbro. The new characters became the basis for Them's Fightin' Herds, which was successfully funded on Indiegogo and was released to Early Access on Steam in 2018. The game left Early Access in 2020, when the first chapter of story mode was released. In November 2023, it was announced that after the completion and release of in-development DLC playable fighters, active development of the game would cease, including the rest story mode, of which the entire plot outline had already been written. Faust herself expressed disappointment at this news, wondering if perhaps a "show or a comic" could be made out of the existing story that had already been written.

Awards

In 2004, Faust was nominated for an Emmy Award. In 2005, she was nominated for an Annie Award. In 2009, she shared a Primetime Emmy for the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends special, "Destination: Imagination".

Personal life

Faust is married to Craig McCracken, creator of The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Wander Over Yonder. They met while they were working on the third season of The Powerpuff Girls. Faust has worked with her husband on all of his shows. She considers herself a lifelong feminist. Faust took maternity leave in mid-2016 to take care of her newborn daughter.

Filmography

Films

Television

Video games

References

1. "Inside the Animator's Studio, an Evening with Lauren Faust - Excerpt". YouTube. December 8, 2017. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021.
2. "Lauren Faust on California Birth Index". Archived from the original on July 23, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
3. ^ Liz Ohanesian "Lauren Faust: Let's Hear It for the Girls" Archived October 19, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, L.A. Weekly People 2012 issue, May 17, 2012
4. "The World's Finest". Worldsfinestonline.com. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
5. ^ Reber, Deborah (May 11, 2010). In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers. Simon Pulse. pp. 234–6. ISBN 978-1-4391-0370-8. Archived from the original on July 20, 2023. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
6. Vara, Vauhini; Zimmerman, Ann (November 4, 2011). "Hey, Bro, That's My Little Pony! Guys' Interest Mounts in Girly TV Show". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 7, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
7. Sony Pictures Animation (June 5, 2014). "Sony Pictures Animation Announces New Original Feature Project MEDUSA, With Emmy® Winner Lauren Faust To Direct" (Press release). PR Newswire. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
8. Amidi, Amid (November 24, 2015). "Lauren Faust No Longer Directing 'Medusa' at Sony Pictures Animation (Exclusive)". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on November 26, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
9. Nico Colaleo (January 20, 2021), Special Guest Animator and Writer LAUREN FAUST, Creative Talent Network, about 1 hour 11 minutes into the video, archived from the original on December 22, 2021
10. Alejandra Gularte (April 20, 2022). "Netflix Animation Fires Phil Rynda, Cancels Bone, The Twits". Vulture.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
11. Drew Taylor (April 20, 2022). "Netflix Animation Erased: Executives Fired, Shows Canceled and Accusations of 'Staged Data' (Exclusive)". Ca.news.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
12. @Fyre_flye (April 21, 2022). "In light of the buzz worthy Netflix Animation article from The Wrap, I'd like to thank all who offered sympathy for…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
13. @Fyre_flye (April 21, 2022). "--it can still live another day. And that perhaps we can get the band back together to share our new take on the wo…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
14. Zivalich, Nikole (July 21, 2011). "My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic -- Nugget From The Net". G4. G4 Media. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
15. Kuang, Jason (July 28, 2011). "My Little Pony gets a 2D fighter: Bronies, time to knuckle up". 2d-x.com. Second Dimension Entertainment. Archived from the original on August 9, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
16. Yin-Poole, Wesley (November 24, 2023). "Them's Fightin' Herds Announces End of Development, Immediately Hit With Community Backlash". IGN. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
17. Faust, Lauren (November 24, 2023). "Too bad that after all this time it had to come to an end before the ending. BUT WHAT A RIDE! I'm grateful to have been a part of it". twitter.com. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
18. Ostroff, Joshua (October 22, 2013). "People Are Kids, Too". The Grid. Archived from the original on September 25, 2014. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
19. Lauren Faust (December 24, 2010), "My Little NON-Homophobic, NON-Racist, NON-Smart-Shaming Pony: A Rebuttal", Ms. Magazine Blog, archived from the original on September 4, 2016, retrieved September 12, 2016
20. "Episode 18: Lauren Faust", Nick Animation Podcast, September 9, 2016, archived from the original on December 22, 2021, retrieved September 12, 2016, My daughter's only three months old, so I'm still on my leave, so I'm... just... usually... all day, taking care of the baby. I kinda love it.
21. "Disney's 2012–13 TV Schedule Presented to Advertisers". Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
22. "TOIL & TROUBLE Trademark Application of Netflix Studios, LLC - Serial Number 90722354 :: Justia Trademarks". Archived from the original on February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
23. "Resume". Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
24. Matulef, Jeffrey (September 22, 2015). "My Little Pony: FiM creator launches brony fighting game crowdfunding campaign". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
25. "ManeSix DevTeam, 2020". Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved May 28, 2020.

Further reading

• Liz Ohanesian, "Lauren Faust: Let's Hear It for the Girls", LA Weekly People 2012 issue,

External links

• Lauren Faust on DeviantArt
• Lauren Faust on Twitter
• Lauren Faust at IMDb
• "Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls". Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. (2021, unsupported flash animation)
• Lauren Faust interview

• 1974 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American screenwriters
• 21st-century American women writers
• Animators from California
• Film producers from California
• American storyboard artists
• American television directors
• Television producers from California
• American television writers
• American voice directors
• American women screenwriters
• California Institute of the Arts alumni
• Primetime Emmy Award winners
• Showrunners of animated series
• American women animators
• American women television directors
• American women television producers
• American women television writers
• Writers from San Jose, California
• Screenwriters from California
• American women film producers
• American animated film directors
• Women animated film directors
• American animated film producers
• Cartoon Network Studios people
• American feminists
• Warner Bros. Animation people