Andy Riley

Last updated

Andy Riley
Born1970 (age 53–54)
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
OccupationAuthor, cartoonist, screenwriter and television producer
Alma mater Pembroke College, Oxford
Period1993–present
GenreComedy, adventure, science fiction

Andy Riley (born 1970) is a British author, cartoonist, and Emmy-winning screenwriter for TV and film.

Contents

Riley has written and drawn many best-selling cartoon books, including The Book of Bunny Suicides (2003) and its sequels, [1] and Great Lies To Tell Small Kids (2005). From 2002 until February 2010 [2] he drew a weekly comic strip called Roasted in The Observer Magazine , a collection of which was released in book form in 2007. Riley also publishes the King Flashypants series of children's books.

With Kevin Cecil, his friend since they attended Aylesbury Grammar School, he created and wrote the sitcoms Year of the Rabbit for Channel 4 and IFC, The Great Outdoors for BBC Four, Hyperdrive for BBC Two [3] [4] and Slacker Cats for the ABC Family Channel. [5] Their other television work includes Veep [6] (for which they each won an Emmy in 2015 in the Outstanding Comedy Series category), Black Books , [7] the Comic Relief one-off special Robbie the Reindeer , [8] for which he and Cecil won a BAFTA in 2000, Little Britain , Tracey Ullman's Show, Trigger Happy TV , So Graham Norton , Smack the Pony , The Armando Iannucci Shows , Harry and Paul , Big Bad World , Come Fly With Me , and Spitting Image . The Radio Four panel game they wrote with Jon Holmes and Tony Roche, The 99p Challenge , ran for five series from 2000. [9]

They wrote for the Miramax animated feature Gnomeo and Juliet, and its sequel Sherlock Gnomes.

Riley has co-written two TV adaptations of David Walliams books: Gangsta Granny and The Boy in the Dress .

Riley was educated at Aylesbury Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read Modern History.[ citation needed ]

Screenwriting credits

ProductionNotesBroadcaster
The Good Sex Guide
  • Unknown episodes (1993)
 ITV
Smith & Jones: One Night Stand
  • Television film (co-written with Mark Burton, Kevin Cecil, Simon Godley, Rory McGrath, John O'Farrell, Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, 1994)
N/A
The Friday Night Armistice
  • Unknown episodes (1995)
 BBC Two
Jack and Jeremy's Real Lives
  • Unknown episodes (1996) (additional material)
 Channel 4
The Armstrong and Miller Show
  • Unknown episodes (1997)
 Paramount Comedy Channel
Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round
  • 6 episodes (1998)
BBC Two
Big Train
  • "Episode #1.1" (1998) (additional material)
BBC Two
The Morwenna Banks Show
  • Unknown episodes (1998)
 Channel 5
Hooves of Fire
  • Short film (co-written with Kevin Cecil and Richard Curtis, 1999)
BBC One
Fox Family Channel
The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything
  • Television film (co-written with Mark Burton and Kim Fuller, 1999)
BBC One
Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show
  • Unknown episodes (2000)
 Sky 1
Smack the Pony
  • 7 episodes (2000–2001) (additional material)
 Channel 4
Slacker Cats
  • Television film (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2001)
 ABC Family
TV to Go
  • Unknown episodes (2001)
BBC One
The Armando Iannucci Shows
  • 8 episodes (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2001)
Channel 4
Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe
  • Short film (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2002)
BBC One
Black Books
  • 8 episodes (2002, 2004)
Channel 4
Man Stroke Woman
  • "Episode #1.3" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2005)
BBC Three
Little Britain
  • 8 episodes (2005–2006) (additional material)
BBC One
Hyperdrive
  • 12 episodes (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2005–2006)
BBC Two
Katy Brand's Big Ass Show
  • "Episode #2.2" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2007)
  • "Episode #2.4" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2007)
ITV2
Slacker Cats
  • 7 episodes (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2007, 2009)
ABC Family
The Great Outdoors
  • 3 episodes (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2010)
BBC Four
The Armstrong & Miller Show
  • "Episode #2.1" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2009)
  • "Episode #3.1" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2010)
  • "Episode #3.4" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2010)
  • "Episode #3.6" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2010)
BBC One
Come Fly with Me
  • 6 episodes (2010–2011) (additional material)
BBC One
Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul
  • "Episode #3.1" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2010) (additional material)
  • "Episode #4.2" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2012) (additional material)
  • "Episode #4.4" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2012) (additional material)
BBC Two
Gnomeo & Juliet
  • Feature film (co-written with Kelly Asbury, Mark Burton, Kevin Cecil, Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg, Steve Hamilton Shaw, John R. Smith and Rob Sprackling, 2011)
N/A
Big Bad World
  • "Episode #1.6" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2013)
 Comedy Central
Gangsta Granny
  • Television film (co-written with Kevin Cecil and David Walliams, 2013)
BBC One
The Boy in the Dress
  • Television film (co-written with Kevin Cecil and David Walliams, 2014)
BBC One
Veep
  • "Clovis" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2014)
  • "Detroit" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2014)
  • "East Wing" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2015)
  • "B/ill" (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2015)
 HBO
Tracey Ullman's Show
  • 6 episodes (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2016–)
BBC One
Sherlock Gnomes
  • Feature film (co-written with Kevin Cecil, 2018)
Paramount Pictures
Seize Them!
  • Feature film (2024)
TBA

Awards and nominations

YearAwardWorkCategoryResultReference
2012 Annie Award Gnomeo & Juliet (shared with Kelly Asbury, Mark Burton, Kevin Cecil, Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg, Steve Hamilton Shaw, John R. Smith and Rob Sprackling) Writing in a Feature Production Nominated
2014Online Film & Television Association Award Veep Best Writing in a Comedy SeriesWon
2015 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Comedy SeriesWon
Writers Guild of America Award Comedy Series Nominated
2016Writers Guild of America AwardComedy SeriesWon
Producers Guild of America Award Veep, Season FourOutstanding Producer of Episodic Television, ComedyNominated

Bibliography

Standalone Cartoon Books

Bunny Suicides

Lies to Tell Small Kids

King Flashypants

Related Research Articles

<i>The Katzenjammer Kids</i> 1897-2006 American comic strip

The Katzenjammer Kids is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years. It debuted on December 12, 1897, in the American Humorist, the Sunday supplement of William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. The comic strip was turned into a stage play in 1903. It inspired several animated cartoons and was one of 20 strips included in the Comic Strip Classics series of U.S. commemorative postage stamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bugs Bunny</span> Looney Tunes character; mascot of Warner Bros.

Bugs Bunny is a fictional character created in the late 1930s at Warner Bros. Cartoons and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his featured roles in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films, produced by Warner Bros. Earlier iterations of the character first appeared in Ben Hardaway's Porky's Hare Hunt (1938) and subsequent shorts before Bugs's definitive characterization debuted in Tex Avery's A Wild Hare (1940). Bob Givens, Chuck Jones, and Robert McKimson are credited for defining Bugs's design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dav Pilkey</span> American cartoonist and author (born 1966)

David Murray "Dav" Pilkey Jr. is an American cartoonist, author, and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known as the author and illustrator of the children's book series, Captain Underpants, and its spin-off children's graphic novel series Dog Man, the latter published under the respective writer and illustrator pen names of George Beard and Harold Hutchins, which are also the names of the two protagonists of the Captain Underpants series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Turtle</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Cecil Turtle is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of films. Though he made only three theatrical appearances, Cecil has the unusual distinction in that he is one of the very few characters who were able to outsmart Bugs Bunny, and the only one to do so three times in a row and at the rabbit's own game. Cecil often gives Bugs the taunting nickname of "Speedy" when addressing the rabbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patton Oswalt</span> American actor (born 1969)

Patton Peter Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013–2023) as adult Adam F. Goldberg. After making his acting debut in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch", he has appeared in a variety of television series, such as Parks and Recreation, Community, Two and a Half Men, Drunk History, Reno 911!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Archer, Veep, Justified, Kim Possible, Modern Family, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He portrayed Principal Ralph Durbin in A.P. Bio (2018–2021) and Matthew the Raven in the TV series The Sandman (2022–present).

<i>Tortoise Wins by a Hare</i> 1943 film directed by Robert Clampett

Tortoise Wins by a Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon released on February 20, 1943, and directed by Bob Clampett. It stars Bugs Bunny and Cecil Turtle. It is a sequel to 1941's Tortoise Beats Hare, with footage from said cartoon briefly shown at the beginning. It is also the first short to feature Robert McKimson's design of Bugs Bunny.

Syncro-Vox is a filming method that combines static images with moving images, the most common use of which is to superimpose talking lips on a photograph of a celebrity or a cartoon drawing. It is one of the most extreme examples of the cost-cutting strategy of limited animation. The method was developed by cameraman Edwin "Ted" Gillette in the 1950s in order to simulate talking animals in television commercials. Gillette filed the technique on February 4, 1952, and obtained patent #2,739,505 on March 27, 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoppy the Marvel Bunny</span> Comic book superhero

Hoppy the Marvel Bunny is a fictional character appearing in American comic books originally published by Fawcett Comics and later DC Comics as a spin-off of Captain Marvel. He was created by Chad Grothkopf (1914–2005), and debuted in Fawcett's Funny Animals #1. A comic book superhero and an anthropomorphic animal, Hoppy has made periodic appearances in stories related to Captain Marvel, today also known as Shazam or The Captain.

<i>The Lockhorns</i> Comic strip

The Lockhorns is a United States single-panel cartoon created September 9, 1968 by Bill Hoest and originally distributed by King Features Syndicate to 500 newspapers in 23 countries. The Lockhorns joined Andrews McMeel Syndication (AMS) January 1, 2024 and continues to appear in hundreds of newspapers worldwide and online through websites including AMS's GoComics! After Hoest's death in 1988 the comic panel was continued by his wife Bunny Hoest and cartoonist John Reiner. In 2017 Hoest donated the archives of more than 37,000 of her cartoons - including The Lockhorns, Howard Huge and others - to Adelphi University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree and an honorary doctorate.

Kevin Robert Cecil is a British screenwriter.

<i>Return of the Bunny Suicides</i> Sequel collection of black comedy cartoons by Andy Riley

Return of the Bunny Suicides (2004) is the second bestselling book of black comedy cartoons by Andy Riley that depict the various ways bunnies attempt to kill themselves.

<i>The Book of Bunny Suicides</i> Collection of black comedy cartoons by Andy Riley

The Book of Bunny Suicides: Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don't Want to Live Any More (2003) is a bestselling collection of mostly one-image black comedy cartoons drawn by author Andy Riley.

Jamie Smart is a British comic artist and author best known for his 10-issue comic series Bear. and his popular children's comic series Bunny vs Monkey running in the Phoenix magazine.

<i>The Easter Bunny Is Comin to Town</i> 1977 Easter TV special

The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town is a 1977 American-Japanese musical Easter television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, using their "Animagic" stop motion animation. The special reunites the writer Romeo Muller, designer Paul Coker Jr., and narrator Fred Astaire from Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and stars the voices of Skip Hinnant, Bob McFadden, Meg Sargent, James Spies, and Allen Swift. It originally premiered on ABC in the United States on April 6, 1977.

<i>What a Guy!</i> American comic strip by Bill and Bunny Hoest

What a Guy! is an American comic strip created by Bill Hoest and Bunny Hoest, the team responsible for The Lockhorns and Agatha Crumm. It began in March 1987, just over a year before Hoest's death in 1988.

Events in 1948 in animation.

Jerry Craft is an American cartoonist and children's book illustrator best known for his syndicated newspaper comic strip Mama's Boyz and his graphic novels New Kid, Class Act, and School Trip. Craft is one of only a handful of syndicated African American cartoonists in the US.

Bugs Bunny Builders is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters from Looney Tunes. The series premiered on July 25, 2022 on Cartoon Network on their Cartoonito preschool block and was released on July 26 on HBO Max. It is the second pre-school program in the Looney Tunes cartoon franchise, following Baby Looney Tunes in 2002.

References

  1. ↑ Jarvis, Alice-Azania Jarvis (1 November 2007). "The 5-minute Interview: Andy Riley, Cartoonist and author" . The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  2. ↑ Riley, Andy (26 January 2010). "Status". Twitter. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  3. ↑ "Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil". Hyperdrive. BBC Comedy. July 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  4. ↑ Deans, Jason (14 February 2006). "Hyperdrive gets second series". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  5. ↑ Wiegund, David (13 August 2007). "Review: Cartoon cats with adult themes? Bad, kitty, bad". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  6. ↑ "Veep IMDB entry". IMDb .
  7. ↑ Low, Lenny Ann (13 June 2005). "In the bad books". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  8. ↑ Mytton, Leigh (26 December 2002). "Top comic cast for Reindeer Robbie". BBC News. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
  9. ↑ "The 99p Challenge". BBC Comedy. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.