Michael Louis Nawrocki (born July 8, 1966) is an American animator, filmmaker, teacher, and voice actor best known as the co-creator of the Christian video series, VeggieTales where he voiced Larry the Cucumber.[3][4] He voiced many other main characters on the show, including Jerry Gourd, Jean-Claude Pea, and other various characters, is the co-founder of Big Idea Entertainment alongside Phil Vischer, and currently serves as the Executive Vice President of the company.[5] He has directed several of their productions, including the award-winning Silly Songs with Larry segments from VeggieTales.
Nawrocki originally wanted a career in the medical field, and studied at St. Paul Bible College (now Crown College) where he met Phil Vischer while serving on a puppet ministry.[6] Nawrocki later enrolled at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and joined Vischer at GRAFx, Nawrocki helped to finance his education by taking a job with Renaissance Video, a video production facility where he gained experience in video production and animation and later worked for Post Effects and Film and Tape Works.
Nawrocki graduated from UIC in 1992 with a BS in biology and a BA in history.[citation needed]
In 1993, Nawrocki left Film & Tape Works, a company that had purchased GRAFx Studios, and his future in medicine to join Vischer and founded Big Idea Productions.[7] After Big Idea's liquidation in 2003, Nawrocki reactivated the company in 2004.[8]
Throughout the 1990s, Nawrocki has voiced Crackle in Rice Krispies commercials alongside Vischer.
On September 30, 2008, Big Idea Entertainment appointed Nawrocki to the position of Executive Vice President.
In 2014, DreamWorks Classics, the parent company of Big Idea, signed an exclusive deal with Netflix to produce and distribute VeggieTales in the House. Nawrocki was signed on to continue voicing most of his characters.[9]
In 2019, Nawrocki started releasing the Christian children's chapter book series The Dead Sea Squirrels, in which a boy named Michael discovers the petrified remains of Merle and Pearl, a squirrel couple who lived during Jesus' time, near the Dead Sea and brings them to America, where they are revived. It was conceptualized in 2016 originally as an animated series. In 2025, an animated series adaptation of the same name was released on Christian children's streaming service Minno.[10][11]
Revival of VeggieTales
In March 2019, Nawrocki's partner Phil Vischer announced on his Twitter that he had re-teamed with Nawrocki at TBN to revive the VeggieTales series. Just like previously, Vischer and Nawrocki would return to voice their characters and also work as writers for the new show.[12]
Awards
Year
Award
Nominated work
Result
1997
Animated Short Film or Video World's Children's Prize Foundation's Children's Jury Award
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