Dave Willis (born May 1, 1970) is an American voice actor, screenwriter, and producer. He is the co-creator of the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

animated series ''

Aqua Teen Hunger Force ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' (also branded with different #Alternative titles, alternative titles for seasons 8–11), is an American adult animated television series created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late night progra ...

'', '' Squidbillies'', and '' Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell''. Willis also voices the main characters Meatwad and

Carl Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

, along with other characters in ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force''. He is also known for voicing Barry Dylan in the FX/ FXX series '' Archer'' and Leto Otel in '' Ballmastrz: 9009''.

Career

Willis has worked on various

shows that are created primarily by

Williams Street Williams Street Productions, LLC, formerly known as Ghost Planet Industries, is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a unit of Warner Bros. ...

, an animation-centered,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

-based production division of

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

. Willis was hired by Ghost Planet Industries after giving the producers a formal letter of recommendation written in crayon, seemingly by a young child. They liked his sense of humor and hired Willis as a writer for ''

Cartoon Planet ''Cartoon Planet'' is an American television programming block that originally ran from 1995 to 1998 and 2012 to 2014 on Cartoon Network. A spin-off of ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', the series centered on Space Ghost recruiting his imprisoned ...

'' in 1995 and then as a writer for ''

Space Ghost Coast to Coast ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' is an American live-action/ adult animated hybrid television series created by Mike Lazzo for Cartoon Network and first broadcast in 1994. It takes the form of a surreal parody of talk shows, hosted by a reimagi ...

'' (''SGC2C'' for short) soon after. In early 2000, he helped write and produce the two ''Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak'' specials. While working on ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', Willis met Matt Maiellaro, with whom he would later create many independent short films and the Adult Swim cartoon ''

''. ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' first premiered unannounced in the early hours of December 30, 2000 and later officially debuted on Adult Swim in the Fall of 2001. In 2005, he co-created the show '' Squidbillies''. His works mostly fall into the genre of

surreal humour Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causality, causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviors that are obviously illogical. Portra ...

. In 2010, Willis created ''

Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge ''Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge'' (often shortened to ''Cheyenne Cinnamon'') is an American animated television series Pilot episode, pilot created by Dave Willis and Matt Harrigan; mainly produced by W ...

'', a new television pilot for Adult Swim. The pilot aired on March 29, 2010, and was not picked up for a full series. In 2011, Willis co-wrote " New Kidney in Town", an episode of ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...

''.

Personal life

Willis was born in

Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan area, Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Archer County, Tex ...

, and was raised mostly in

Conyers, Georgia Conyers is a city and the county seat of Rockdale County, Georgia, United States. The city is 24 miles (38.6 km) east of downtown Atlanta and is a part of the Metro Atlanta, Atlanta metropolitan area. As of 2020 United States census, 202 ...

. He graduated from

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

and was station manager at Wake Radio. He resides in Atlanta with his wife and two children, Max and Sadie.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Web

References

External links

*
Interview with Dave Willis
on public radio program

The Sound of Young America ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

*
The Swimcast
– interview with Dave Willis, 2008-12-12
The Swimcast
– interview with Dave Willis, 2011-5-12 {{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Dave 1970 births Living people 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American male screenwriters American male television writers American male video game actors American male voice actors American male web series actors American television directors American television writers People from Wichita Falls, Texas Screenwriters from Texas Showrunners of animated series Television producers from Texas Wake Forest University alumni