Glen Murakami is an American animator, animation director, and producer of Japanese descent. He is best known for his work on Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.
Glen Murakami is also the creator of Teen Titans TV Show aswell.
Animation[]
Murakami originally wanted to be a comic book artist. His friend from junior high and high school, Keith Weesner, got a job working on Batman: The Animated Series as a background artist and informed Murakami when they were hiring artists at Warner Bros. Murakami was given a storyboard test, which he failed. But seeing his drawing talent, he was hired anyway.
Working closely with Bruce Timm, Murakami worked as a character designer and storyboard artist from 1991 to 1993. From 1995 to 1999, Murakami worked as Art Director on Superman: The Animated Series and The New Batman/Superman Adventures.
Batman Beyond[]
Murakami was promoted to producer for Batman Beyond and won an Emmy Award in 2001 for his work on the series.[3] In addition to producing, he also was credited for story on the movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
Teen Titans[]
In 2002, after a decade working on shows produced by his friend and mentor Bruce Timm, Murakami produced his first series without Timm, the Teen Titans.
In addition to producing, he was also the character designer on the series. Murakami approached the show with an unusual design style, setting them apart from the rest of DC Comics animated programing. The show's style was dubbed Murakanime or "Americanime".
The popular series ran for five seasons, 65 episodes, and concluded with the movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo in 2006.
Later Years[]
After his work was completed on Teen Titans, Murakami was a producer for The Batman and created the 2012 show Beware The Batman, after the work was completed on both shows, Murakami "Stepped" away from Animation and became inactive for a majority of the 2010s.
As of 2021, he has yet to be seen to work on something.
Comics[]
Murakami illustrated the Star Wars comic Death Star Pirates - originally published in issues #16 through #20 of the Star Wars kids magazine in 1998 and later collected in Star Wars Tales Volume 2 by Dark Horse Comics.
He also drew a cover for Teen Titans Go!, and wrote and drew for stories in Batman Adventures and Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories, winning an Eisner Awardfor his work in the Batman Adventures Holiday Special.
Awards[]
- Eisner Award - Best Single Issue - 1995 - 'Batman Adventures Holiday' Special (with Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Ronnie del Carmen, and others)
- Annie Award - Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Television Production - 1999 - Legends of the Dark Knight - 'The New Batman/Superman Adventures'
- Annie Award - Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Animated Television Production - 2001 - 'Batman Beyond' (with Jean MacCurdy, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, and others)
- Emmy Award - Outstanding Special Class Animated Program - 2001 - 'Batman Beyond' (with Jean MacCurdy, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Hilary Bader, Stan Berkowitz, Rich Fogel, Robert Goodman, Curt Geda, Butch Lukic, Dan Riba, James Tucker, Andrea Romano)