website emmyawards birth_place imdb_id name birth_date yearsactive image article_title education birth_name occupation
http://www.joemurraystudio.com/ emmy hour or more -rrb- producer camp lazlo emmy 2008 outstanding 2007 special class -- short-format animated programs producer camp lazlo outstanding animated program -lrb- for programming one san jose , california , u.s. 0615061 joe murray 03 may 1961 1987 -- present joe murray publicity shot.jpg joe murray -lrb- animator -rrb-
 leland high school joseph david murray animator , director , writer , artist
joe murray -lrb- animator -rrb-

joseph david `` joe '' murray -lrb- born may 3 , 1961 -rrb- is an american animator , writer , illustrator , producer , director , and voice actor , best known as the creator of the nickelodeon animated series `` rocko 's modern life '' and the cartoon network animated series `` camp lazlo '' .
born in san jose , california , murray was interested in a career in the arts when he was three .
he credits his high school art teacher mark briggs with teaching him a lot about art .
murray was a political cartoonist for a newspaper , often targeting then president jimmy carter .
as a young adult murray was hired as a designer at an agency , where he invested his earnings from the production company into independent animated films .
in 1981 at age 20 , he founded his independent illustration production company , joe murray studios , while he was still in college .
later in 1992 , murray created his first animated color film , `` my dog zero '' , for which he was awarded a student academy award .
he decided to develop a television series titled `` rocko 's modern life '' for nickelodeon .
after pitching it to nickelodeon , the company decided to create the concept .
while creating the series , murray hired comedian and actor carlos alazraqui to supply the voice for the character of rocko .
the series premiered on nickelodeon on september 18 , 1993 , and ended on november 24 , 1996 , completing four seasons and 52 episodes .
after `` rocko 's modern life '' murray wanted to create another television series , this time for cartoon network .
he created his second series `` camp lazlo '' as a pilot , where he served as the producer of that pilot .
after cartoon network decided to create the show , murray brought fellow `` rocko '' cast members carlos alazraqui and tom kenny -lrb- the voice of spongebob squarepants -rrb- to voice the main characters lazlo -lrb- alazraqui -rrb- and scoutmaster lumpus -lrb- kenny -rrb- .
the series first aired in 2005 , and ended production in 2008 , with five seasons and 65 episodes .
murray is the winner of two primetime emmy awards for `` camp lazlo '' -lrb- outstanding special class -- short-format animated programs -rrb- and outstanding animated program -lrb- for programming one hour or more -rrb- for the tv film '' '' .
he is currently working on the website kaboingtv , which is dedicated to animation .
murray is also a writer and illustrator and is the author of the book `` creating animated cartoons with character '' , which features animators about their careers in animated cartoons .
