Michael John Roberts, the Canadian director, producer and animator with credits including TripTank, BoJack Horseman and Dallas & Robo, has died. He was 48.
Roberts died peacefully at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday surrounded by his family after a brief battle with glioblastoma.
Roberts, who specialized in animated comedy for adults, helmed 2017 episodes of Netflix’s F Is for Family, starring Bill Burr, and served as the supervising director on the first season of the TBS animated comedy-drama Final Space in 2018.
And in 2023, he directed all 10 episodes of the 2023 Apple TV series Strange Planet, co-created by Dan Harmon.
Roberts co-created and directed all 28 installments of the Comedy Central sketch comedy TripTank, which ran for two seasons (2014-16) and featured voice work from the likes of Bob Odenkirk, Curtis Armstrong, Larry David, Niecy Nash, Zach Galifianakis, Kumail Nanjiani and Wayne Brady.
In 2015, he found time to direct title sequences and episodes of Netflix’s acclaimed BoJack Horseman, starring Will Arnett and Aaron Paul.
Roberts also created the eight-episode buddy comedy Dallas & Robo, which starred John Cena and Kat Dennings and premiered on YouTube Red in 2018. Always partial to science fiction, he called it “Smokey and the Bandit in space.”
TripTank, BoJack Horseman, Dallas & Robo and Final Space all emanated from the animation studio and production company ShadowMachine.
Roberts was born on Dec. 20, 1977, and raised in Toronto; his mother, Wendy, was a doctor and his father, Teddy, a mechanic.
“I always wanted to be a comic book artist growing up,” he said in a 2021 interview. “But somewhere in there I found out that they did the lightning bolts on the DeLorean in Back to the Future by hand and decided that was the job for me!”
He studied animation at Sheridan College in Ontario and worked in Toronto, New York and London before settling in the late 1990s in Los Angeles, where he worked on shows including Angela Anaconda, The Hoobs and Tales of Rat Fink.
In 2012, he won the Juno Award for video of the year for creating and directing a six-minute animated Western-style short film titled Rumbleseat that featured the Canadian band The Sadies.
Along the way, he also did commercials for Honda, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, ABC and Pulse Electric Scooters.
Roberts also worked for Mattel Television and most recently was the executive producer and creative producer on the company’s Hot Wheels Let’s Race: Attack of the T-Rex and executive producer on Masters of the Universe: Tales From Eternia for Mattel and Netflix. He also directed the pilot for the animated special Backyard Sports and directed season one of MrBeast Lab and was a writer and consulting producer on season two.
In addition to his parents, survivors include his wife, actress Bree Williamson; their teenage son, McGreggor; his sister, Jane; niece, Gwen and nephew, Vaughan. He was also close with his cousin Hrothgar, whom he saw as a brother, and his wife, Emily, and their children, Evie and Lili.
McGreggor “was a source of immense pride,” his wife wrote in a remembrance of her husband. “Michael wanted nothing but the best for him and saw in the young man he was becoming, possibilities greater than he could ever have imagined for himself. He was already deeply proud of the life his son was building and eager for all that lay ahead of him.”
McGreggor, Bree and Mike Roberts
Courtesy of Bree Roberts
Asked last year what advice he would give to newcomers, Roberts replied: “Make the thing you want to make. Because everyone in this business wants you to have already done it. So if you’re a writer, you have to have a script. If you’re a film director, you have to have a short film. If you’re an animator, you’ve got to have a cartoon … be a personality that can’t get ignored.
“It’s a small group of people who put all the pieces together. So that should be really encouraging. If you can muster the energy, you’ll get there. Because the line’s shorter than you think.”
Aaron Couch contributed to this report.
