Ken

Ken Pontac was born in Glendale Memorial Hospital on May 22, 1957, or raised by electric eels in Peru, depending on whom you want to believe. His early childhood was colored by a series of incidents too remarkable and bizarre to recount fully in this brief text, but by the age of three the course of his life was to be set forever; young Kenny was determined to become the thirty-seventh president of the United States. The landslide election of Richard Milhouse Nixon in 1969 shattered these ambitions, however, and caused him instead to choose a career in film.Pontac began his filmmaking career in 1981 in the effects houses of Hollywood, directing film graphics for commercials and features. His commercial work included spots for Coca-Cola, Disneyland, Norelco, and Shell Oil (for which he is still paying a karmic debt). His feature effects were seen in films such as Never Say Never Again, Moonstruck, and Douglas Trumbull's groundbreaking Showscan film New Magic.In 1987 Pontac moved to Northern California to serve as art director for The New Adventures of Gumby, for which he produced sets, puppets and artwork for thirty-three episodes of syndicated animation.In 1989 Pontac returned to Hollywood to create and produce a prime-time television pilot that aired on ABC TV. He spent a year on the Warner Brothers lot working in development with various writers and producers, then returned to Northern California to create his own company, Danger Productions.Danger Productions employed a staff of one hundred artists and animators who created content for television, video games, and computer applications. The company produced twenty-six half-hours of the ABC TV animated program Bump in the Night, which Pontac created, produced, wrote and directed. Danger Productions also designed and produced the characters for the best-selling video game Clayfighter for Interplay, as well as creating animated assets for Microsoft's Office 97 and My Personal Tutor.From 1990 to the present Pontac has written scripts for animated television episodes that have been translated into a dozen languages and shown around the world. During that time he has also worked as a director for the UPN prime time animated program Gary & Mike, for which his episode Phish Phry won an Emmy for Best Art Direction. He was also nominated for an Emmy for his work on the Discovery Kids series ToddWorld. Pontac is a writer and story-editor for Mondo Media's Happy Tree Friends, and is working on an animation project with Jim Woodring that is too secret to talk about.Pontac lives in Sausalito with a beautiful redheaded nurse and a dog named Whistle.For some reason, Pontac is compelled to refer to himself in the Third Person in this biography. MySpace LayoutsMy dog Whistle is featured in an upcoming HTF episode. He's part Great White Shark and takes shit from no dog.Ha ha! I wrote this song when I was in Iceland working on LazyTown!