Film & TV / Visual art
Butch Hartman
born 1965 · animator, writer, producer
Creator of The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom, born in Highland Park and raised in Roseville and New Baltimore in Macomb County.
- Born
Highland Park, Michigan
age 61- Birth name
- Elmer Earl Hartman IV
- Detroit years
- 1965–1983
- Field
- Film & TV, Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Butch Hartman was born Elmer Earl Hartman IV in Highland Park in 1965, the son of a doctor. He spent his childhood in Roseville and his teenage years in New Baltimore on Anchor Bay, graduating from Anchor Bay High School in 1983 before heading west to study at the California Institute of the Arts. While still a student he worked as an in-betweener on Don Bluth's An American Tail. In the early 1990s he joined Hanna-Barbera, where he wrote, directed and storyboarded for Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken. His short about a boy with two fairy godparents, first made in 1997 for Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons, grew into The Fairly OddParents, which became Nickelodeon's second-longest-running animated series after SpongeBob SquarePants. He followed it with Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy and Bunsen Is a Beast, left Nickelodeon in 2018 and now works largely on YouTube and in independent animation.
Highlights
- Created The Fairly OddParents (shorts 1998, series 2001–2017)
- Created Danny Phantom (2004–2007)
- Anchor Bay High School class of 1983
- Earlier worked on Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo at Hanna-Barbera
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · until 1983
Anchor Bay High School
Public high school serving New Baltimore and the Anchor Bay area; Hartman graduated in 1983.