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Lauren Faust

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Lauren Faust
Faust in 2014
Born
Lauren J. Faust

(1974-07-25) July 25, 1974 (age 50)
San Jose, California, U.S.[1]
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts
Occupation(s)Animator, writer, storyboard artist
Years active1994–present
Known for
Spouse
​
(m. 2004)​
Children1
Awards2009 Primetime Emmy Award

Lauren J. Faust (born July 25, 1974)[2][3] is an American animator, writer, director, and producer, best known as the creator of 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

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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[4] at Cartoon Network Studios as a storyboard artist, screenwriter, supervising producer, story supervisor.[5] 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.[3] 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".[6] She developed Super Best Friends Forever for Warner Brothers, and Medusa for Sony Pictures Animation,[7] though Sony changed the creative direction of Medusa, with Faust leaving the project.[8] 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.[9][10][11][12][13]

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.[14][15] 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.[16] 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.[17]

Awards

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In 2004, Faust was nominated for an Emmy Award. In 2005, she was nominated for an Annie Award.[5] In 2009, she shared a Primetime Emmy for the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends special, "Destination: Imagination".

Personal life

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Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust in 2003

Faust is married to Craig McCracken, creator of The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Wander Over Yonder.[3] They met while they were working on the third season of The Powerpuff Girls.[18] Faust has worked with her husband on all of his shows. She considers herself a lifelong feminist.[19] Faust took maternity leave in mid-2016 to take care of her newborn daughter.[20]

Filmography

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Films

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Year Title Role
1994 Home, Honey, I'm High Voice
1997 Cats Don't Dance Animator – "Sawyer"
1998 Quest for Camelot Animator – United States
1999 The Iron Giant Animator
2002 The Powerpuff Girls Movie Story, screenwriter, storyboard artist, character designer, character layout supervisor
2013 Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony Executive Producer, herself
2015 The Iron Giant: Signature Edition Animator
2018 #TheLateBatsby Short film;
Director, writer, story, character design

Television

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Year Title Role
1995 The Maxx Character layout artist
2001 Codename: Kids Next Door Walk cycles
Episode: No P in the OOL
2001–2005 The Powerpuff Girls Storyboard artist, Story, writer, director, Supervising director
2004–2009 Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Developer, Supervising producer (Seasons 3-4), writer, Story, Story supervisor, Storyboard artist, Character designer, Animation director, Story editor
2010–2011 My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Creator, Developer
Season 1: Executive producer, writer, Character designer, Creative director, Story supervisor, Story editor
Season 2: Executive producer on The Return of Harmony, Consulting producer
2012 Super Best Friends Forever Creator, director, writer, Storyboard artist, producer
2013–2014 Wander Over Yonder[21] Developer, co-producer, Story editor, writer, director, Character designer (Season 1 only)
2019–2021 DC Super Hero Girls Creator, Developer, writer, Executive Producer
2021 Kid Cosmic Developer, Story, Writer (Season 2)
TBA Toil & Trouble[22][23] Creator, Developer, Character Designer

Video games

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Year Title Role
2018/2020[24] Them's Fightin' Herds Narrative design director (story),
character designer (main characters)[25]

References

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  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. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b 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

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  • Liz Ohanesian, "Lauren Faust: Let's Hear It for the Girls", LA Weekly People 2012 issue, [1]
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