Natasha Allegri (born June 18, 1983) is an American animator, writer, storyboard artist, storyboard revisionist and comic book artist. She is the creator ofCartoon Hangover's andFrederator Studios'Bee and PuppyCat,^[1] and is also noted for her work as a storyboard revisionist and character designer forCartoon Network'sAdventure Time,^[2] for which she created the charactersFionna and Cake,genderswapped versions of Finn and Jake.^[3]

Natasha Allegri
Allegri at Midwest Media Expo, 2014
Born	(1983-06-18)June 18, 1983 (age 41) Inverness, Florida, U.S.
Occupation	Animator, storyboard artist, comic book artist, storyboard revisionist, writer
Education	University of Arizona
Period	2010–present
Genre	Adventure Comedy drama Science fantasy Science fiction
Notable works	Adventure Time Bee and PuppyCat

Born in June 1983, Allegri is the daughter of aNative Okinawan mother and aBolivian father ofFrench,Italian andNative Bolivian descent.^[2][4] She watched anime and read manga and theGarfieldcomic strip.^[4] As a result, she gravitated toward comics rather than cartoons, as she saw it as "less work", although she later acknowledged that it is "just as much work".^[5]

Allegri grew up inInverness, Florida.^[4] In high school and college, she made comics about her life that she posted toLiveJournal,^[6] which is how she metPendleton Ward.^[4]

While in college at theUniversity of Arizona in Tucson,^[4] her friend, and creator ofAdventure Time,Pendleton Ward, contacted her about working onAdventure Time and she worked on the show for five seasons.^[5][4] To begin working on the show, she moved to California, and dropped out of college over her father's objections.^[4] While working on the show, Allegri began drawing gender-swapped web comics of the show's characters, including "Fionna and Cake" as her gender-swapped versions of Finn and Jake. Eventually, after being showcased onFrederator's popularAdventure Time tumblr, these characters were featured in full episodes ofAdventure Time—debuting in the episode "Fionna and Cake". Since August 6, 2013, she has also written and illustratedFionna and Cake comics forBOOM! Studios.^[5] Allegri also posted art of "Fionna the Human" and "Cake the Cat" online during the show's earliest seasons,^[3] while working as astoryboard artist.^[7][8] It was later developed into a series entitledAdventure Time: Fionna and Cake.^[9]

Allegri created and produced her own animated short,Bee and PuppyCat, forFrederator Studios'YouTube channelCartoon Hangover which was released on July 11, 2013.^[5][1][10] The episode introduces viewers to Bee, a recently unemployed young woman, and PuppyCat, a small and mysterious creature resembling both a dog and a cat. Bee takes PuppyCat in and, in return, he helps her find strange temp work, in this case babysitting a giant fish named Wallace in Fishbowl Space. In response to the success of the short,Frederator launched a Kickstarter on October 14, 2013, to raise funds for a full season. The Kickstarter was successful, raising Frederator $872,133 toward the production ofBee and PuppyCat, the animated series.^[11][12][13] This exceeded their original goal of $600,000 and made them the 10th most crowdfunded Video and Film project to date.^[11]

Natasha Allegri's successful campaign onKickstarter has been seen as an example of digital-agecrowdfunding mechanisms' role on enabling creators reliant on directfan investment.^[14][1][2] It was described by some as the "most successful Kickstarter campaign" for an animated series at the time,^[10] as she was able to crowdfund nine episodes of the series.^[15] Allegri later said that "a studio wouldn't have aired Bee and PuppyCat" and that it could only exist online.^[16] Other stated that the crowdfunding was successful because of the "devoted...fanbase" ofAdventure Time.^[17]

Allegri has created multiplegraphic novels/comic books starring "Fionna and Cake" and "Bee and PuppyCat", respectively.^[2][5]

Bee and Puppycat:

• Bee and Puppycat #1, created with Garrett Jackson.
• Bee and Puppycat #2, created with Garrett Jackson.
• Bee and Puppycat #3, created with Madeleine Flores,Ian McGinty, Anissa Espinosa, and Tait Howard.
• Bee and Puppycat #4, created with T. Zysk, Mad Rupert, Coleman Engle, Aimee Fleck, Pranas Naujokaitis, and Anissa Espinosa.
• Bee and Puppycat, Vol. 1 (#1-4), created with the aforementioned.
• Bee and Puppycat #5, created with T. Zysk, Chrystin Garland, Flynn Nicholls, and Meredith McClaren.
• Bee and Puppycat #6, created with Andrew Lorenzi, Joy Ang, Meredith McClaren, and Carey Pietsch.
• Bee and Puppycat #7, created with Garrett Jackson.
• Bee and Puppycat #8, created with David Calderón, Liz Fleming, Coleman Engle, Reimena Yee, and T. Zysk.
• Bee and Puppycat, Vol. 2 (#5-8), created with the aforementioned.
• Bee and Puppycat #9, created (without the help of Natasha Allegri) by Patrick Seery, and Ji in Kim.

Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake:

• Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #1, created with ND Stevenson.
• Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #2, created withLucy Knisley.
• Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #3, created by Natasha Allegri.
• Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #4, created by Natasha Allegri.
• Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #5, created withLucy Knisley.
• Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #6, created with Betty Liang.
• Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake, Vol. 1, created withLucy Knisley, and Kate Leth.

Allegri has named several of her influences including works byRumiko Takahashi,Sailor Moon,^[5]InuYasha,^[18] andSuperbook,^[4][5] as well asBob's Burgers,King of the Hill,^[19]Kiki's Delivery Service,^[1] and her cat, Pancake.^[5]

Allegri sang the theme song for the "Fionna and Cake" episode ofAdventure Time.^[20] Additionally, she served as a storyboard revisionist for theBravest Warriors episode "Butter Lettuce" and has contributed to the miniseriesOver the Garden Wall as writer and storyboard artist.^[2]

She also provided the official art for theVocaloid soundbankRuby, released byPowerFX. This art was based upon a concept design by illustrator D-Artemisso.^[21]

In 2017, Allegri directed "The Summoning," created by Elyse Castro, forFrederator'sCartoon Hangover channel.^[22] It was the first short cartoon from GO! Cartoons.^[23]

In 2019, Allegri was co-author of theOpenBSD 6.5 poster and was the author of the OpenBSD 6.6 and 7.0 posters.^[24][25] She was a writer for the anime seriesCannon Busters the same year.^[26][27]