J. G. Quintel
Quintel in 2011
Born	James Garland Quintel Hanford, California, U.S.
Education	CalArts (BFA)
Occupations	Animator storyboard artist director writer producer voice actor
Years active	2004–present
Known for	Regular Show Close Enough Camp Lazlo The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
Spouse	Cassia Streb ​ ​ (m. 2010)​
Children	1

James Garland Quintel is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, writer, producer, and voice actor. He created theCartoon Network seriesRegular Show (2010–2017), in which he voicedMordecai andHigh Five Ghost, and theHBO Max seriesClose Enough (2020–2022), in which he voiced Josh.

Quintel served as a creative director forThurop Van Orman'sThe Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack (2008–2010), as well as writer and storyboard artist forJoe Murray'sCamp Lazlo (2006–2008), both of which aired onCartoon Network. In 2009, he was nominated for theAnnie Award for Directing in a Television Production for directing an episode ofFlapjack. In 2012, he received aEmmy Award for Outstanding Short-format Animated Program category forRegular Show.

James Garland Quintel was born inHanford, California to Terri (née Morris) and James Allen Quintel. According to Quintel, Hanford's geography is "kind of flat" and there "was not a ton to do" when he was growing up, so he and his friends were always looking for ways to entertain themselves; he later incorporated these kinds of misadventures intoRegular Show.^[1][2]

Quintel often played the video gameToeJam & Earl, the influence of which he later described as "the perfect platform" forRegular Show protagonists Mordecai and Rigby.^[1] He also became influenced byrock music from the 1980s and later added 1980s music intoRegular Show.^[1] He attendedHanford High School.^[3] In 1998, when he was 16, his father gave him a video camera which he used (along withLego men and crudepaper cutouts) to create a few minutes ofstop motion film for several short film projects at Hanford High School.^[2][3] To expand his artistry, he took anAP literature class and a pottery class at Hanford High, as well as a summer class where he learned how to animate films and makeflip books.^[2][3] He also worked at a movie theater and at "a lot of minimum wage jobs",^[4] just as Mordecai and Rigby work for minimum wage at a park inRegular Show.^[1] In May 2000, he was nominated as a 12th grade California academic all-star from Hanford High.^[5]

After high school, Quintel briefly attendedCollege of the Sequoias andCollege of the Canyons before later transferring toCalifornia Institute of the Arts inSanta Clarita, California.^[6] At CalArts, Quintel and about 20 fellow students, including now-voice artist Sam Marin, developed their short films by throwing title names (such as "lollypop" or "candy") into a hat, drawing them out, and reading them aloud at midnight as a warm-up, where they would each then rush back to their desks in a marathon effort to make a film in 48 hours based on the one word drawn.^[1] In the spring of 2005, this CalArts process led Quintel to put together a short animated film about anambassador who loses his cool during a benign encounter.^[7] Quintel titled his new filmThe Naive Man from Lolliland.^[7] Moreover, as Quintel's first exposure to the animation industry, Quintel obtained a 2004internship atCartoon Network Studios to work on the TV seriesStar Wars: Clone Wars. At CalArts, Quintel would also meet another student by the name ofPendleton Ward, with whom he would later work with on theCartoon Network seriesThe Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Ward would later use his experience fromFlapjack to go on to create theEmmy Award-winning Cartoon Network seriesAdventure Time.

During the fall of Quintel's fourth year at CalArts,The Naive Man from Lolliland won both the Producers Choice Award (anApple G5 computer and a copy ofBauhaus Software's Mirage animation software) and the Student Animator Award (US$1,000 and a copy ofSoftimage XSI3D computer graphics software) at the2005 Nextoons Nicktoons Film Festival.^[7][8] In response to Quintel's success at the 2005Nicktoons Film Festival,Fred Seibert, an entertainment entrepreneur and television and film producer, identified Quintel as "an original talent to watch out for in the future".^[8] Quintel's hometown local newspaper, theHanford Sentinel, noted Quintel's success at the 2005 Nicktoons Film Festival as being one of 2005's moments from a memorable year.^[9] In December 2005, Quintel graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with aBFA degree incharacter animation.^[10]

After graduating, Quintel passed a test and began working as a storyboard revisionist for Cartoon Network'sCamp Lazlo.^[2] In May 2006,Nicktoons Network announced that Quintel would be one of six judges at the 3rd Annual Nicktoons Network Animation Festival.^[10][11] In 2007, Quintel entered his short film,2 in the AM PM, in the 30th annualSpike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation.^[12] In2 in the AM PM, twoslackers are left alone to run a convenience store/gas station onHalloween night, where candy filled with drugs creates a mini-nightmare.^[13] Quintel later used some of these2 in the AM PM characters inRegular Show.^[1]

In 2008, QuintelpitchedRegular Show for theCartoonstitute project at Cartoon Network by using astoryboard, with his reasoning that "I don't think me verbally pitching such an odd concept would have made any sense to anyone."^[1] In August 2009, Cartoon Network ordered more episodes ofThe Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack as well asgreenlit Quintel's project,Regular Show.^[14] The agreement upon the premise ofRegular Show was that the series would be about two park groundskeepers, Mordecai (a 6-footblue jay) and Rigby (a hyperactiveraccoon),^[15] who try to entertain themselves at their jobs while doing anything they can to avoid work and escape their everyday boredom.^[14] Along with his success at getting approval to developRegular Show, in December 2009, Quintel and director John Infantino were nominated for anASIFA-HollywoodAnnie Award in the category of "Directing in a Television Production" for their directing work on theCandy Casanova episode in Season 2 ofThe Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.^[16] However, American animation director and fellow CalArts graduateBret Haaland subsequently took the director Annie Award in February 2010 for Haaland's work onThe Penguins of Madagascar – Launchtime.^[17] Nine months after Quintel was nominated for an Annie Award,Regular Show debuted at 8:15 P.M.EST on September 6, 2010.^[18] In September 2011, while the first season ofRegular Show was being aired, Quintel was nominated for aPrimetime Emmy Award in theOutstanding Short-format Animated Program category as executive producer and creator ofRegular Show.^[19] However, hisRegular Show series was beat out for the award by theABC animated special,Disney Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa.^[20]

By March 2012, Quintel was directing a crew of about 35 to develop each episode ofRegular Show, which takes about nine months to go from idea to final product.^[3][21] Quintel has most recently worked for Cartoon Network Studios inBurbank, California developing episodes forRegular Show and provided his real voice to the 23-year-old blue jayRegular Show character Mordecai.^[3] In commenting on his voice acting, Quintel noted how he has an easy-going nature and never yells in real life, so he had to learn how to yell as the Mordecai character.^[1] Quintel also directedRegular Show: The Movie, the film premiered on August 14, 2015, atThe Downtown Independent theater in Los Angeles, where it was shown until August 20, 2015. It then had a DVD release and a primer on Cartoon Network in November.^[22][23]

FollowingRegular Show's conclusion in January 2017, Quintel announced the creation ofClose Enough, an adult animated series about a young couple and their daughter inLos Angeles.^[24] The show was inspired by Quintel’s own experiences of becoming a young father and trying to balance work with the commitments of marriage and parenthood. “As we were wrapping upRegular Show in 2017, I was looking for new ideas. The first show coincided with me having a job and being out of college, andClose Enough is about getting married, starting a family, trying to buy a house. It’s about transitioning from being just yourself and doing whatever you want to taking care of other people in your life.”^[25][26] The series was initially expected to premiere later in 2017 as part of a planned adult animation block onTBS. However, the cornerstone of that block was aLouis C.K.-helmed series calledThe Cops, and when C.K. admitted to sexual misconduct earlier that summer TBS re-tooled their entire schedule, shuntingClose Enough intodevelopment hell despite having its entire first season produced. It was later resurrected when TBS' parent companyWarnerMedia Entertainment announced the launch of a streaming service,HBO Max, that would feature original exclusive content.

On June 12, 2024,Warner Bros. Discovery announced thatRegular Show would be getting a new series with Quintel returning as showrunner.^[27] In the same month, it was announced that Quintel will also serve as showrunner for an adult television adaption ofJillian Tamaki's webcomic,SuperMutant Magic Academy, forAdult Swim.^[28]

Quintel married Cassia Streb in 2010.^[29] The couple have one child together.^[25]

Quintel is an enjoyer of music and technology from the 1970s and 1980s; he made many references to both inRegular Show.^[30][31]

• J. G. Quintel onTwitter
• J. G. Quintel atIMDb

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