Seth MacFarlane
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (/məkˈfɑːrlɪn/; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, comedian, and singer. MacFarlane is well known as the creator and star of the television series Family Guy (since 1999) and The Orville (2017–2022), and co-creator of the television series American Dad! (since 2005) and The Cleveland Show (2009–2013). He also wrote, directed, and starred in the films Ted (2012) and its sequel Ted 2 (2015), and A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014).
Seth MacFarlane
- Actor
- animator
- writer
- producer
- director
- comedian
- singer
1995–present
- Rachael MacFarlane (sister)
- Arthur Sager (grandfather)
- Vocals
- piano
MacFarlane is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied animation.[1] Recruited to Hollywood, he was an animator and writer for Hanna-Barbera for television series, including Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Dexter's Laboratory, and the animated short Larry & Steve for What A Cartoon!. MacFarlane made guest appearances as an actor on television series, such as Gilmore Girls, Star Trek: Enterprise, The War at Home, and FlashForward. In 2008, he created the online series Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. MacFarlane has won several awards for his work on Family Guy, including five Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2009, he won the Webby Award for Film & Video Person of the Year.
MacFarlane has performed as a singer at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Royal Albert Hall in London. He has released eight studio albums, in the vein of Frank Sinatra, with influences from jazz orchestrations, and Hollywood musicals beginning with Music Is Better Than Words in 2011. MacFarlane has received five Grammy Award nominations for his work.[2] He has frequently collaborated with artists such as Sara Bareilles, Norah Jones, and Elizabeth Gillies on his albums.[3] He hosted the 85th Academy Awards in 2013 and was nominated for Best Original Song for "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from Ted.[4]
MacFarlane was executive producer of the Neil deGrasse Tyson-hosted Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, an update of the 1980s Cosmos series hosted by Carl Sagan.[5] He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019 and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2020.
Early life and education
MacFarlane was born and raised in Kent, Connecticut.[1] His parents, Ronald Milton MacFarlane (b. 1946) and Ann Perry (née Sager; 1947–2010), were born in Newburyport, Massachusetts.[6] His younger sister Rachael is also a voice actress. His maternal grandfather, Arthur Sager, competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics in track and field. MacFarlane's parents met in 1970 when they lived and worked in Boston, Massachusetts, and married later that year.[6] They moved to Kent in 1972, where Ann began working in the admissions office at South Kent School. She later worked in the college guidance and admissions offices at the Kent School, a selective college preparatory school, where Ronald was a teacher.[6][7]
As a child, MacFarlane developed an interest in illustration, and at the age of two he began drawing cartoon characters such as Fred Flintstone and Woody Woodpecker.[8] By age five, he knew he wanted to pursue a career in animation, and began by creating flip books after his parents found a book on the subject for him.[9] Four years later, at nine, he began publishing a weekly comic strip, Walter Crouton, for The Kent Good Times Dispatch, the local newspaper; it paid him five dollars per week.[10][11] MacFarlane said in an October 2011 interview that as a child he was always "weirdly fascinated by the Communion ceremony". He created a strip with a character kneeling at the altar taking Communion and asking "Can I have fries with that?" The paper printed it and he got an "angry letter" from the local priest; it led to "sort of a little mini-controversy" in the town.[12] MacFarlane received his high school diploma in 1991 from the Kent School.[6][7] While there, he continued experimenting with animation, and his parents gave him an 8 mm camera.[13]
After graduating from high school, MacFarlane attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he majored in animation. As a student, he intended to work for Disney, but changed his mind after seeing The Simpsons.[14] During his time at RISD, he performed stand-up comedy.[15] He also starred in many student films, meeting future Family Guy cast member Mike Henry, whose brother Patrick was MacFarlane's classmate.[16] In his senior year, he made his thesis film, The Life of Larry, which became the inspiration for Family Guy.[10] A professor submitted his film to the animation studio Hanna-Barbera, where he was later hired.[17] He graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.[10]
Activism
Political views
MacFarlane is a supporter of the Democratic Party.[47] He has donated over $200,000 to various Democratic congressional committees and to the 2008 presidential campaign of then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama.[191] He has stated that he supports the legalization of cannabis.[192]
In 2015, MacFarlane revealed support for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and he introduced Sanders onstage at a Los Angeles rally.[193] After the primaries, he supported Hillary Clinton for president during the general election.[194] In 2019, he supported Pete Buttigieg in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[195] After the primaries, he endorsed Joe Biden for president during the general election.[196]
Lawsuits
On October 3, 2007, Bourne Co. Music Publishers filed a lawsuit accusing Family Guy of infringing its copyright on the song "When You Wish Upon a Star", through a parody song titled "I Need a Jew" appearing in the episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". Bourne Co., which holds the copyright, alleged the parody pairs a "thinly veiled" copy of their music with antisemitic lyrics. Named in the suit were MacFarlane, 20th Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., Cartoon Network and Walter Murphy; the suit sought to stop the program's distribution and asked for unspecified damages.[226] Bourne argued that "I Need a Jew" uses the copyrighted melody of "When You Wish Upon a Star" without commenting on that song, and that it was therefore not a First Amendment-protected parody per the ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.[227][228] On March 16, 2009, United States District Judge Deborah Batts held that Family Guy did not infringe on Bourne's copyright when it transformed the song for comical use in an episode.[229]
In December 2007, Family Guy was again accused of copyright infringement when actor Art Metrano filed a lawsuit regarding a scene in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, in which Jesus performs Metrano's signature magic parody act, involving absurd faux magical hand gestures while humming the distinctive tune "Fine and Dandy".[230] MacFarlane, 20th Century Fox, Steve Callaghan, and Alex Borstein were all named in the suit.[231] In July 2009, a federal district court judge rejected Fox's motion to dismiss, saying that the first three fair use factors involved—"purpose and character of the use", "nature of the infringed work", and "amount and substantiality of the taking"—counted in Metrano's favor, while the fourth—"economic impact"—had to await more fact-finding. In denying the dismissal, the court held that the reference in the scene made light of Jesus and his followers—not Metrano or his act.[232][233][234] The case was settled out of court in 2010 with undisclosed terms.[235]
On July 16, 2014, MacFarlane was served with a lawsuit from the production company of a series of Internet videos called Charlie the Abusive Teddy Bear claiming that Ted infringes on the copyright of its videos due to the Ted bear largely matching the background story, persona, voice tone, attitude, and dialogue of the Charlie bear.[236] The suit was dismissed with prejudice on March 23, 2015, after the plaintiffs conceded Ted was independently created and withdrew the suit.[237][238][239]