Ross Bagdasarian Jr

**Ross Dickran Bagdasarian Jr.** (born October 25, 1949) is an American animator, filmmaker, and voice actor. He is known for his work on the _Alvin and the Chipmunks_ franchise. He is the son of the franchise's wife, Janice Karman, and creator, Ross Bagdasarian.

## Early life

Bagdasarian was born in Fresno, California on October 25, 1949, the son of Armenian-American parents Armenuhi Bagdasarian (née Kulhanjian) and Ross Bagdasarian (1919–1972). As a child, he worked with his father on _The Alvin Show_ by helping edit and coordinate the soundtracks and falsetto voice-overs of the Chipmunks.

## Career

Bagdasarian graduated from law school. He succeeded his father as president of Bagdasarian Productions in 1972 after the death of the elder Bagdasarian. The company had fallen into obscurity after significant success between 1958 and the late 1960s. Bagdasarian was also admitted to the California bar as an attorney in 1975.

Under Bagdasarian's supervision, new Chipmunks records were created shortly after his marriage to Janice Karman, including _Chipmunk Punk_. In 1981, the Chipmunks returned to television in the cartoon special _A Chipmunk Christmas_. Two years later, Ruby-Spears Productions' _Alvin and the Chipmunks_ Saturday morning cartoon series debuted on NBC. Based on that series, a feature film, _The Chipmunk Adventure_ was released in 1987. Bagdasarian voices Alvin, Simon, and Dave Seville, and Karman voices Theodore and the Chipettes (Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor).

Bagdasarian and Karman hold tight creative and financial control over the _Chipmunk_ franchise, reviewing each and every business contract in great detail. In the mid-90s, Bagdasarian bought out his brother's and sister's portions of the _Chipmunk_ rights, to take complete control of the franchise.

### Universal Pictures lawsuit

Bagdasarian licensed the rights to the Chipmunk characters to Universal Pictures in 1996, resulting in a string of Universal-produced direct-to-video films. Four years later, he and Karman sued them for breach of contract, claiming that Universal failed to properly utilize, market, and merchandise the characters and hence resulting in a loss of royalties to Bagdasarian. The case was decided in Bagdasarian's favor. "For us, it was a custody battle", Karman said. "They finally realized 'OK, these two are really fighting for their kids'."

## Personal life

Bagdasarian married Janice Karman in 1980. She is the co-president of Bagdasarian Productions.

### Film

|Year|Title|Producer|Writer|Actor|Role|Notes||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1987|_The Chipmunk Adventure_||||Alvin Seville Simon Seville David Seville |||||
|1999|_Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein_||||Direct-to-video|||
|2000|_Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman_|||||||
|2004|_Little Alvin and the Mini-Munks_|||||||
|2007|_Alvin and the Chipmunks_||||Alvin Seville (singing voice)||Songwriter|
|2009|_Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel_||||Singing Voice|||
|2011|_Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked_|||||||
|2015|_Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip_|||||||

### Television

|Year|Title|Producer|Writer|Actor|Role|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1981|_A Chipmunk Christmas_||||Alvin Seville Simon Seville Dave Seville || TV film||
|1983–1990|_Alvin and the Chipmunks_||||TV series||
|1984|_I Love the Chipmunks Valentine Special_||||TV film||
|1985|_A Chipmunk Reunion_||||||
|1990|_Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue_||||Alvin Seville Simon Seville || TV short||
|_Rockin' Through the Decades_||||Alvin Seville Simon Seville Dave Seville || rowspan="4"|TV film|||
|1994|_Alvin and the Chipmunks: Trick or Treason_||||||
|_A Chipmunk Celebration_|||||||
|1995|_The Easter Chipmunk_||||||
|2015–2023|_Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks_||||TV series||

## Other websites

- History at Chipmunks.com

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Ross Bagdasarian Jr.
- **birth name**: Ross Dickran Bagdasarian
- **birth place**: Fresno, California, U.S.
- **other names**: Ross Bagdasarian
- **years active**: 1973–present
- **television**: #Filmography, See full List below
- **children**: 2
- **father**: Ross Bagdasarian