Dave Pressler is an American illustrator, animator, sculptor,

character designer Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * Character (novel), ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * Characters (Theophrastus), ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek se ...

and painter based in Los Angeles. Much of his work focuses on whimsical portrayals of

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and strange, fantastical creatures. He is perhaps best known for his

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-nominated, short-lived

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

series '' Robot and Monster'', which he created and produced with Joshua Sternin and Jennifer Ventimilia.

Career

Pressler's career in entertainment first started in his twenties after moving to Los Angeles. The first characters he designed were "Gak & Flem," a duo of characters Dave created with Dan Clark to interview celebrities with on the red-carpet. After that, Dave secured a position as a character developer at

The Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is kn ...

. Along with partners Dan Clark and Don Asher, Dave (the trio forming Wandering Monkey Entertainment) became a key production / character designer for shows like Los Luchadores and Brats of the Lost Nebula, which TV Guide rated as The Best Children's Show of 1998. He has also developed shows and worlds for networks such as

Kids' WB Kids' WB (stylized as Kids' WB!) was an American children's programming block that originally aired on The WB from September 9, 1995, to September 16, 2006, and later on The CW from September 23, 2006, to May 17, 2008. Initially launched as a co ...

Nelvana Nelvana Limited (; also known as Nelvana Enterprises, Nelvana International or Nelvana Digital; commonly known as Nelvana; stylized as "nelvana") is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment s ...

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Entertainment units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years old ...

, Fox Kids Network and Wild Brain, among others. Dave was the creature designer, co-producer and co-star of the indie-horror film

The Item ''The Item'', formerly known as ''The Sumter Daily Item'' and ''The Daily Item'', is an independent morning newspaper published in Sumter, South Carolina, five days a week (Tuesday to Friday), with a "Weekend Edition" delivered on Saturday morn ...

. The film was the first digital feature to be accepted to

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

. Dave went on to create the distinctive visual design for the Emmy-nominated CGI children's adventure show for

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, ''

The Save-Ums! ''The Save-Ums!'' is an animated children's television series produced by Decode Entertainment. The series first premiered on CBC on December 2, 2002, and later aired on Discovery Kids as part of the '' Ready Set Learn!'' programming block ...

''. Some of Dave's most cherished work has been his sculpting, and he has enjoyed success as a highly sought-after sculptor of vinyl collectibles. His handiwork has been immortalized as Necessaries Toy Foundation's Mark Ryden's YHWH, Camille Rose Garcia's "Camille's Girls," The Ron English "Rabbbit" figure, Brendon Monroe's "Sour" for Android 8, Nathan Jurevicius "Monkey King", and Luke Chueh's "Black in White". With the success of Dave's various limited edition resin creations his character "Angry Clobber Monkey" has become his first vinyl collectable character. In the Summer of 2014, DreamWorksTV, the YouTube channel of

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

, premiered Dave's new series of stop-motion short videos ''How To Do Everything! With Garrick & Marvin''. The project marks Dave's first endeavor into stop-motion animation. Throughout 2017, Pressler served as the Art Director for " The Boss Baby: Back in Business," for DreamWorks Animation Television. Taking place after the film, the series will follow Boss Baby, and his big brother Tim, as they navigate around the world of BabyCorp. It is being released by Netflix in 2018. In August 2018, he will have a career retrospective exhibition at Museum of Art History in Lancaster, CA. In January 29, 2021 a new project by Pressler for ''

Disney Television Animation Disney Television Animation (DTVA; also shortened to Disney TVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is an American animation production company that serves as the television a ...

'', under the title ''Planet Puppies'' was registered.

Personal life

In 2014, Pressler announced he will be going to space thanks to

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and opera ...

. He is married to

Lisa Henson Lisa Marie Henson (born May 9, 1960) is an American television and film producer who has been involved in television shows such as ''Sid the Science Kid''. She is the CEO of The Jim Henson Company, founded by her parents Jim Henson, Jim and Jan ...

, CEO of

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pressler, Dave 21st-century American illustrators American animators 21st-century American painters Henson family (show business) Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Artists from Los Angeles Sculptors from California Nickelodeon Animation Studio people Showrunners of animated series American character designers