Starburns Industries

Starburns Industries

Company type	Private
Industry	Animation Television production Film production
Genre	Television and Film company
Founded	2010
Founder	Dan Harmon Dino Stamatopoulos Joe Russo II James A. Fino Duke Johnson
Headquarters	Burbank, California, U.S.
Key people	James A. Fino (CEO) Duke Johnson (CFO) Dino Stamatopolous (Secretary)
Products	Rick & Morty Mary Shelley's Frankenhole HarmonQuest
Services	Traditional animation Stop-motion animation CGI animation Flash animation Live-action
Net income	$20 million (2025)
Number of employees	51-200 (2025)
Divisions	Starburns Audio SBI Press
Website	www.starburnsindustries.com

Starburns Industries, LLC is an American animation studio and production company based in Burbank, California. It was founded in 2010 by Dan Harmon, Dino Stamatopoulos, Joe Russo II, James A. Fino, and Duke Johnson. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

The company is best known for their shows, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenhole and the first two seasons of Rick and Morty for Adult Swim; HarmonQuest for Seeso / VRV; Animals for HBO; Good Game for YouTube Premium; and the first season of The Freak Brothers for Tubi.

History

The company's name is a direct reference to the recurring character Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne from Harmon's sitcom Community, who was played by Stamatopoulos.

The studio was initially launched to produce the Emmy Award-winning stop-motion holiday special for Community titled "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas". The success of this project helped solidify the company's focus on high-quality, creator-led animation projects. ^[4]

In January 2020, Harmon departed from the company to focus his time and attention on the development of his other projects, including Rick and Morty. The production of Rick and Morty had already transitioned to a separate entity, Rick and Morty LLC, which operates out of the Starburns facility. ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]}

Filmography

TV

Title	Creator / Developer(s)	Co-production(s)	Premiere date	End date	Network	Notes
Mary Shelley's Frankenhole	Dino Stamatopoulos	ShadowMachine Fragical Productions (both; season 1)	June 27, 2010	March 25, 2012	Adult Swim	Season 2 only.
Rick and Morty	Justin Roiland Dan Harmon	Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions! (seasons 1–8) Harmonious Claptrap	December 2, 2013	present		Seasons 1-2 only. Longest running show.
Animals	Phil Matarese Mike Luciano	Karen BBQ Duplass Brothers Television HBO Entertainment	February 5, 2016	October 5, 2018	HBO
Great Minds with Dan Harmon	Dan Harmon Richard Korson	Matador Content	February 25, 2016	June 16, 2016	History Channel
HarmonQuest	Dan Harmon Spencer Crittenden	Harmonious Claptrap Universal Content Productions	July 14, 2016	October 20, 2019	Seeso (2016) VRV (2017-19)
Good Game	Jesse Cox Michele Morrow		August 30, 2017	September 27, 2017	YouTube Premium
Alpha Betas	Chris Bruno David Howard Lee	3BLACKDOT Bush House Bruno & Lee Octopie Studios	March 14, 2021	present	YouTube	Episode 1 only.
Woman in the Book	Daniel Persitz	Crypt TV	June 4, 2021	August 6, 2021	Facebook (Facebook Watch)	First Internet series.
The Freak Brothers	Daniel Lehrer Jeremy Lehrer-Craiwer Courtney Solomon Alan R. Cohen Alan Freedland	Pure Imagination Studios WTG Enterprises Lionsgate Television	November 14, 2021	present	Tubi	Season 1 only.

Movies

Title	Director(s)	Premiere date	Distributor	Co-production with	Runtime	Note(s)
Harmontown	Neil Berkeley	March 8, 2014	The Orchard		1h.	First film by the company. Based on the Harmontown podcast.
Anomalisa	Charlie Kaufman Duke Johnson	September 4, 2015 (Telluride Film Festival) December 30, 2015 (United States)	Paramount Pictures		1 hr, 30 min.
Dope State	Gabriel Sunday	April 20, 2019	YouTube	Route One Entertainment	2 hr, 12 min.
Claydream	Marq Evans	June 13, 2021	Oscilloscope Laboratories	XYZ Films	1 hr, 36 min.
Godkrusher	Casey Rup	December 31, 2022	YouTube	Infinite Timelines

Specials

Television specials

Show	Title	Premiere date	Network	Notes
Community	Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas	December 9, 2010	NBC	First production by Starburns Industries. Stop-motion special.
Moral Orel	Beforel Orel: Trust	November 18, 2012	Adult Swim
Community	G.I. Jeff	April 3, 2014	NBC
	Art Prison	July 29, 2018	Adult Swim
	The Emperor's Newest Clothes	November 15, 2018	HBO	Based on The Emperor's New Clothes, by Hans Christian Andersen.

Shorts

Title	Premiere date	Director(s)	Notes
Unholy 'Mole	September 8, 2019	David Bornstein
The Black Hole	July 21, 2021	Sofia Åström	Made as a pilot for an animated show on SyFy, but wasn't picked up for a full series.
Better Call Saul Presents: Slippin' Jimmy	May 23, 2022	Zac Palladino	6-part miniseries for AMC+.
My Year of Dicks	February 17, 2023	Sara Gunnsardóttir

Podcasts

Title	Creator	Premiere date	End date
Harmontown	Dan Harmon	June 16, 2012	December 3, 2019
Before You Were Funny	Justin Michael Jacob Reed	July 2012	September 2016
Whiting Wongs	Dan Harmon Jessica Gao	2017	2018

Divisions

Starburns Audio

Starburns Audio

Genre	Radio
Founded	2018
Defunct	April 2023
Headquarters	Burbank, California, U.S.
Parent	Starburns Industries

Starburns Audio was the podcast network and audio production division of Starburns Industries. It was launched as a new venture in 2018, partially growing out of the assets and shows of the now-defunct Feral Audio podcast network.

The division produced and archived podcasts from its parent network, such as Harmontown, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, Dumb People Town, The Boogie Monster, and Singsongers.

The podcast network, occasionally faced criticism from listeners over the placement of controversial or politically charged advertisements that were not aligned with the values of the individual shows or their hosts.

On April 7, 2023, comedian Adam Conover stated on X that Starburns Audio officially ceased operations and shut down. ^{[9] [10]}

SBI Press

SBI Press

Industry	Comics and Graphic novels
Founded	2017
Founder	Simon Ore
Headquarters	Burbank, California, U.S.
Key people	Simon Ore (President) Brendan Wright (Vice President) Eric M. Esquivel Trevor Richardson (VP of Acquisitions)
Parent	Starburns Industries

SBI Press is the publishing division of Starburns Industries. It was founded by Starburns executive, Simon Ore, in 2017.

Unlike its parent company, the division primarily publishes comic books, graphic novels, and occasionally other specialty printed media.

The division was also launched to provide a quicker outlet for the studio's creators and collaborators to develop original intellectual property outside of the long production cycles of film and television.

In 2018, SBI Press partnered with Diamond Comic Distributors for exclusive worldwide distribution, securing a pathway into the comic book specialty, book, and hobby markets.

Bibliography

Title	Writer(s)	Date(s)	Note(s)
Gregory Graves	Dan Harmon Eric M. Esquivel	2017	First singular graphic novel.
Comics Comics (Comics Comics Quarterly)	Various	2018-present	Anthology series.
Starburns Presents		2018
Hellicious	Mina Elwell AC Medina	2018-19
Trent: A Light Tragedy with Music	Dino Stamatopoulos Leah Tiscione	August 21, 2018	Second singular graphic novel.
Fantasmagoria	Eric M. Esquivel James A. Fino	September 26, 2018	First bilingual comic by the company.
Oddwell: The Frog of War	David A. Clarke Walter A. Bryant III	2018-19
Gryffn	Ben Kahn Bruno Hidalgo Sal Cipriano	2019
Rafael Garcia: Henchman	Peter Murrieta Ben Herrera	2021-present

References

1. Broughton, Travis (2025-03-05). "Announcing the Adult Comedy Animated Series Fellowship presented by Starburns Industries!". Austin Film Festival. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
2. "Starburns Industries Press Comes To Previews". previewsworld.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
3. "Starburns Industries - Gaming, Music Company Profile, Funding Rounds and Investors". bouncewatch.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
4. "Charitybuzz: Meet the Minds Behind Starburns Industries, An Imaginative Production Company Specializing in Animation". /www.Charitybuzz.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
5. Milligan, Mercedes (2020-01-11). "Dan Harmon Departs Starburns Industries". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
6. Anderton, Ethan (2020-01-09). "'Rick And Morty' Co-Creator Dan Harmon Left His Starburns Industries Production Company Some Time Ago". SlashFilm. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
7. Wit, Alex Dudok de (2020-01-14). "'Rick And Morty' Co-Creator Dan Harmon Has Left Starburns Industries, The Company He Co-Founded" . Retrieved 2025-12-07.
8. Sneider, Jeff (2020-01-08). "Dan Harmon Exits Production Company Starburns Industries". Collider. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
9. Conover, Adam (April 7, 2023). "Some news: Factually's podcast network, Starburns Audio, suddenly shut down last week. Starburns was an awesome, creator-powered network that helped countless comedians start and monetize their podcast, and I'm really going to miss working with them".
10. "Reddit - The heart of the internet". www.reddit.com. Retrieved 2025-11-29.

External links

• Official website