Michael John Roberts, Animator Behind BoJack Horseman and TripTank, Dies at 48
Michael John Roberts, a Canadian director, producer and animator, has died at age 48. The Hollywood Reporter reported that he died at his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family, after a brief battle with glioblastoma, a fast-growing cancer of the brain.
Roberts worked on some of the best-known animated comedies of the past decade. In 2015 he directed title sequences and episodes of Netflix's BoJack Horseman. He went on to direct episodes of Netflix's F Is for Family in 2017. In 2018 he was supervising director on the first season of TBS's Final Space, meaning he oversaw the directing work across the series.
He also made his own shows. Roberts co-created and directed all 28 installments of Comedy Central's TripTank, which ran for two seasons from 2014 to 2016. He created Dallas & Robo, an eight-episode series starring John Cena and Kat Dennings that premiered on YouTube Red in 2018. In 2023 he directed all 10 episodes of Apple TV's Strange Planet.
Roberts was born on 20 December 1977 and grew up in Toronto. He studied animation at Sheridan College in Ontario, a school known for training animators. His early recognition came in music. In 2012 he won a Juno Award, Canada's main music prize, for video of the year. He had created and directed the video for Rumbleseat, featuring the band The Sadies.
Across those projects, his name ran through several streaming services, cable channels and a national music awards show. Animated series take months of drawing, recording and editing before anyone sees them, and the people who run that process are often the ones who keep it on schedule. Roberts's career was built on that kind of work.
