Stephen Neary

Creator, The Fungies, Cartoon Network/HBO Max

David the Gnome. Gumby. Batman: The Animated Series. Fraggle Rock. Animation creator Stephen Neary says he loved watching these four shows when he was kid growing up in Fort. Wayne, Indiana in the early ’90s. “Watching animation as a kid is a totally different experience,” he recalls. “Everything felt so saturated and warm. Later, Cartoon Network shows like Dexter’s Lab and The Powerpuff Girls were a huge influence: They were subversive and weird while still checking off all the boxes for a kid’s cartoon.”

These days, Neary is in charge of his own colorful and immersive world. He is the creator of The Fungies, a clever new animated series which debuts on HBO Max later this year. “I was reading about these ancient fungi that grew on Earth about 400 million years ago,” he tells us. “Thinking about the world in its ‘youth’ made me think about being a kid, and what it’s like to gradually become more aware of your feelings as your world grows larger and larger. I wanted to explore these ideas in a show that had a sincere tone but was still weird and funny, like other ‘creature’ shows.”

Looking back at his early fascination with animation, Neary says he didn’t even know working in animation was a realistic goal. “But I loved cartoons, drew a lot, and made little stop-motion movies in iMovie,” he says.“I was studying live action at NYU when I started taking animation classes and fell in love with the medium all over again. Every time I watched a storyboard pitch from a movie’s DVD extras I thought, ‘That’s my dream job.’”

Then in 2005, when his professor Rob Marianetti asked him to help out with some cartoons for SNL’s TV Funhouse series, he jumped at the chance. “I was so bad at drawing but helped composite and scan animation. Fueled by coffee and Jamba Juice, we’d stay up all Friday night to finish the cartoon for broadcast the next night. It was insane, but Rob and his studio partner Dave Wachtenheim were very pragmatic and calm about surfing the waves of chaos.”

When asked to name his animation idol, Neary mentions Genndy Tartakovsky. “He does original shows, adaptations, movies — everything. Primal was incredible, and it’s cool to see industry veterans continue to push the envelope through their careers. It makes me excited to keep learning!”

So, how does it feel to be in charge of his own Fungies world? “Making the show is a dream come true,” he notes. “I work with so many talented artists, writers and production folks. But if I’m awake, I’m probably thinking about the show on some level. I’m doing the dishes and bam, I remember we need to change something about Scene 141 in episode 26. I love distance running and use that as an excuse to zone out and recharge!”

“I remember telling a recruiter when I was 18 that I wanted to be a director,” he recalls. “Very politely, they told me to never tell anyone that: “A big studio isn’t looking for an 18-year-old director.” First, I needed to be able to understand one part of the process inside and out. After that, I tried to focus more on the storyboarding and storytelling aspect of animation. This seems obvious now, but at the time, I was extremely naïve!”