Bruce W. Smith

**Bruce Wayne Smith** (born September 6, 1961) is an African-American animator, character designer, film director and television producer. He is best known as the creator of Disney Channel's *The Proud Family* *and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,* as well as the supervising animator of Kerchak in *Tarzan*, Pacha in *The Emperor's New Groove*, Dr. Facilier in *The Princess and the Frog*, and Piglet, Kanga, and Roo in *Winnie the Pooh*.

## Biography

Smith grew up in Los Angeles, California. At age 10, he made his first animated film based on designs of *One Hundred and One Dalmatians*.

Smith studied animation in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. He joined the Walt Disney Studios as an animator on *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* and various other *Roger Rabbit* shorts that the studio produced. In 2022, Smith said that the "big old tree Afro" with lips is a caricature of himself that he drew while working on the show.

He would also be an animator for the *Back to Neverland* short, *Michael & Mickey*, and *Rock-A-Doodle*. Additionally, he would work on *Rover Dangerfield* as a storyboarder, character designer, character animator, and sequence director. In 1997, Smith was a scenic artist for the film, *The Peacemaker* and was an animator for *The Indescribable Nth* and *Garfield in the Rough*. He also worked as a character designer for *C-Bear and Jamal.*

Some years later, Smith was handpicked by producer/director Reginald Hudlin (*House Party*, *Boomerang*) to direct the Paramount Pictures animated film *Bébé's Kids*. In years that followed, he would be a character designer for the *A Cool Like That Christmas*. and *A Goofy Movie* television movies, supervising animator of *The Pagemaster*. He would also work on the *Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child* TV Series in various roles. Smith also worked as character designer and director for the Paramount Television Animation/Hyperion Pictures/O Entertainment series *ToonMania*.

Smith also served as co-director on the Warner Bros. live action/animated film *Space Jam* before returning to Disney as supervising animator on such films as *Tarzan* (Kerchak and Baboons) and *The Emperor's New Groove* (Pacha).

While working animation on the feature film side, Smith started feeding into his love of television animation and created *The Proud Family* for Disney Channel. He co-founded Jambalaya Studios, with Hyperion Pictures for the production of the series and crafted over 50 episodes of the series along with *The Proud Family Movie*. The name of the series, the first venture for Jambalaya Studio, came from something he told his co-founder, Tom Wilhite when he showed him the show's main characters drawn as though they were in a family portrait.

In 2004, he would be the supervising animator for *Home on the Range*, the same year, he be the executive producer and co-creator of the series *Da Boom Crew*. Smith later described the series as mixing concepts of *Star Wars* and *Boyz-N-The Hood*, and argued that the series tries to recreate the "black experience in animated form."

In 2009, Smith rejoined the Walt Disney Studios and Duncan Studio Production to supervise animation on *The Princess and the Frog* (Dr. Facilier), the 2011 *Winnie the Pooh* movie (Piglet, Kanga and Roo), and as the lead animator on the short *Tangled Ever After*. Smith's knack for unique character design led him into the visual development of other projects at the studio such as *Tyler & Marky*, *Wreck-It Ralph* and *Frozen*, as well as co-director of *Tyler & Marky 2*. He later worked as the director of most episodes of *The Toontails* for Disney XD and Disney Channel, as well as being a producer of *The Toontails Movie* in 2015.

In 2015, he would be part of the senior creative team of *Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast* in 2015. In 2018, he would be an animator for *Teen Titans Go! To the Movies* In 2019, he directed the animated short film *Hair Love*.

He returned to *The Proud Family* with *The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder*, which began airing on Disney+ starting on February 28, 2022. This was spurred by the fact that on January 1, 2020, the original *The Proud Family* series began streaming on Disney+, and shortly thereafter Disney executives approached Smith and Ralph Farquhar about reviving the series On February 27, 2020, the show was formally ordered on Disney+. Smith concurred with Farquhar, saying that the "show never really went away" and called it the "perfect time to bring back this show." Smith also argued that the series is "blazing a path...[in] this animated sphere," saying it has parts of the horror, sci-fi, and Western genres. The show is rated TV-PG making this the first Disney animated series to carry this rating.

In December 2020, he signed an overall deal with Disney with Farquhar.

On April 18, 2022, Disney+ renewed *The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder* for a second season.

Smith is an animator and member of the production time for an upcoming hand-drawn indie animated steampunk film entitled *Hullabaloo*.