| Andy Merrill | |
|---|---|
| Born | Andrew Ronald Merrill November 27, 1966 Newark, Ohio, United States |
| Years active | 1994-present |
Andy Merrill (born November 27, 1966 in Newark, Ohio) is a television writer, producer, and voice actor best known for his comedy voice portrayal of the character Brak on Space Ghost: Coast To Coast and Cartoon Planet and other related productions from Cartoon Network utilizing characters from the Space Ghost series. He is a graduate of Asbury University where he majored in media communications.
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He joined Cartoon Network within several months of its inception (in 1992), coming over from sister company CNN. He started working in programming, and in 1993 he and then head of programming Mike Lazzo helped put together the first animated late-night talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Andy even voiced Space Ghost in the first of two unaired pilots for the show. In April 1994 Space Ghost Coast to Coast (SGC2C for short) premiered on Cartoon Network. The concept of SGC2C was that 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon superhero Space Ghost had retired from being a superhero and was hosting his own talk show, in which he interviewed with real celebrity guests, with his old arch enemies Zorak and Moltar as band leader and director. To date, the show has had over 90 episodes aired on television, and was one of the motivating forces behind the creation of the Adult Swim programming bracket started in 2001. Andy helped produce and write for the show for years, and voiced "Council of Doom" members Brak and Lokar, who would appear on the show periodically, mostly Brak.
In 1995 a spin off from SGC2C, Cartoon Planet premiered on TBS (but later moved to Cartoon Network in 1996), with Andy once again writing and producing the show (along with a few other crew members that also worked on Space Ghost Coast to Coast) and voicing the character of Brak. The three main characters on Cartoon Planet were Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak, and it was basically a show of skits and songs put together from the same limited animation used on SGC2C. Originally the skits and songs were just used as filler for showing old Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, and Popeye cartoons, until the skits and songs became more popular and Brak developed more of a personality and grew popular with fans. The show eventually just became made up fully of skits and songs.
In 2000 two Sonny and Cher-style variety show specials premiered on Cartoon Network, titled Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. The show featured new animation, and new songs with celebrity guests and fellow Space Ghost villain Zorak. However, the specials were met with mixed reviews from fans. In the early hours of December 21, 2000, a new sitcom parody cartoon premiered, titled "Leave it to Brak" which was actually the pilot episode for the future Adult Swim show, The Brak Show which premiered on Adult Swim in 2001 and ran for two seasons.
| Year | Production | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994-2008 | Space Ghost Coast to Coast | Actor | |
| 1995-1999 | Cartoon Planet | Actor | |
| 2000 | Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak | Actor | Special |
| 2000-2003; 2007 | The Brak Show | Actor | |
| 2000-present | Aqua Teen Hunger Force | Oglethorpe | Actor, 21 episodes [1] |
| 2007 | Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters | Oglethorpe | Movie |
He left Atlanta briefly, moving to New Jersey for a year, and joining Boomerang (an asset of the Turner Broadcasting System) in its programming department.
| Preceded by Gary Owens |
Actors portraying Space Ghost 1995-1999 |
Succeeded by George Lowe |
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