Andy Merrill

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.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Merrill 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. He 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. He 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.

Cartoon Planet

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.

Brak's spin-offs

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 three seasons.

Acting

Year Production Role Other notes
1994-2008 Space Ghost Coast to Coast Brak, Lokar, Live-Action Space Ghost
1995-1999; 2012–present Cartoon Planet Brak, Dancin' Space Ghost
2000 Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak Brak Special
2000-2003; 2007 The Brak Show Brak
2000–present Aqua Teen Hunger Force Oglethorpe Actor, 21 episodes
2007 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Oglethorpe Movie
2008 Assy McGee Yusuf Season 2, Episode 9
2011 Pound Dogs Dog Pound Worker Guy Short
2013 Adventure Time James Season 5, Episode 42

Other notes

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.

References

    External links

    Preceded by
    Gary Owens
    Actors portraying Space Ghost
    1995-1999
    Succeeded by
    George Lowe