Mitch Schauer
Mitchell Lee Schauer (pronounced "shower") (born December 18, 1955 in Pawhuska, Oklahoma) is an American animation professional who's been involved in children's programming, primetime live-action series and feature films since 1978. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the critically acclaimed, animated Nickelodeon sitcom, The Angry Beavers.
Biography
Born in rural Oklahoma, Schauer had a difficult childhood. Shortly after his ninth birthday, his parents died in a car accident. Upon being placed in a foster home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Schauer grew increasingly disgruntled by his situation. Several weeks after his placement in the home, he ran way. He was taken in by a band of misfit hobos who, though begrudging at first, eventually accepted him as their own.
Schauer discovered his interest in art early on. Fashioning a paint brush for himself, Schauer began to paint pieces of cardboard to pass the time. He used discarded condiments and natural paints extracted from several types of flowers for his paint. Animation especially caught his attention and he began animating the occurrences that he observed as he lived on the streets. Despite being homeless, Schauer continually saw education as a means to further his position in life and therefore made the effort to attend school regularly.
He was discovered by an art agent in Tulsa at the age of 17, having spent the majority of his life up until that point living on the streets. From there he went on to art school, and eventually making his way to Los Angeles where he has since worked for almost every animation studio in the business.
Early life
Mitch Schauer graduated from Daniel Webster High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1974.
He briefly attended Tulsa Junior College, then studied with Disney's character animation program at California Institute of the Arts ('76–77). He graduated with a BFA degree in Advertising and Illustration from Art Center - College of Design in 1980.
Art career
Besides working in animation, Schauer has also been a book illustrator including comic books (DNAgents, Jonny Quest) children's books such as Pogman, with his most recently published work being as writer/illustrator of his own graphic novel, Rip M.D. and cover artist for Famous Monsters of Filmland (Oct. 2011).
Beginning as an animation layout artist then switching over to freelance storyboard artist, Schauer has worked for virtually every television animation production company in the industry. His first assignment as producer was The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, leading to his winning of an Emmy Award in 1995 as producer of Warner Brothers' Freakazoid!. In 1997, he created The Angry Beavers for Nickelodeon. His daughters, Stacy and Chelsea, voiced the Beaver brothers' younger sisters in two episodes and an unaired pilot, "Simply Sisters".
Partnering with Paul Rugg, he co-created and co-directed The Sam Plenty Cavalcade of Action Show Plus Singing! for the Jim Henson Company.[1][2]
Having completed character model designs and storyboarding for Marvel/Lionsgate's direct-to-DVD animated features, Schauer has recently wrapped his Supervising Director chores on 52 episodes of The Super Hero Squad Show for Marvel and Film Roman and begun pre-production on another Marvel series to be released through their own animation studio. He is also developing animated features based on his concepts, Rip M.D., TARGET! HARRY SHANKS and a live-action untitled horror biopic.
Family
Married: Cindy (1978–present) Children: Stacy (b. 1980) Chelsea (b. 1982) Robert (b. 1986)
References
- ↑ Henson Company press release, March 10, 2008
- ↑ Sam Plenty Comes to the Web. August 05, 2007