Who is Dan Povenmire?
If you were a fan of Disney’s animated series “Phineas and Ferb”, you are certainly familiar with the voice actors, Vincent Martella and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who were heard as the voices ofghe title characters, but have you ever wondered who is behind the voice of the evil Doctor Doofenshmirtz? Let us tell you that the voice actor heard as this character is also the co-creator of this series, and his name is Daniel Kingsley ‘Dan’ Povenmire.
He is a writer, director, producer and animator, who has worked on numerous popular animated series, including “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, and “SpongeBob SquarePants”, among others.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CcvIZIarmp3/?hl=en
Early life and education
Dan was born under the zodiac sign of Virgo on 18 September 1963, in San Diego, California USA, thus he holds American nationality, and he comes from a family of Caucasian descent. Dan was actually raised with his sister Linda in Mobile, Alabama, by their mother Diane Lee, after their father Sanford Earl Povenmire died in 1965.
From the early age of two, Dan started drawing, and by the age of ten, his works were displayed in local art shows; as he said, the biggest influence on his work was animator Chuck Jones, known for his work for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, while he also was influenced by the work of Hayao Miyazaki, the creator of Japanese animated movies.
Speaking of Dan’s educational background, he attended Shaw High School, and upon matriculating in 1981, he enrolled at the University of South Alabama, in Mobile, then in 1985, he transferred to the University of South California (USC), in Los Angeles, planning to pursue a career as a filmmaker; subsequently he fulfilled his dream, but dropped out from college.
Career
During his college days in Alabama, Dan created his debut comic strip entitled “Life is a Fish”, and when he moved to California, he pitched his strip to Mark Ordesky, who was the editor of the university newspaper the Daily Trojan, and although at first Mark didn’t want to publish it, eventually he accepted, and “Life is a Fish” is run daily in the newspaper.
Dan soon launched merchandise related to the strip, which included books, calendars, and T-shirts, all sold at the campus craft fair, earning $14,000, which he used to launch his career as a street-artist, after leaving the college without finishing the degree requirements.
In 1989, Dan made his acting debut in the movie “Going Overboard”, followed by his role in the 1990 movie “Road Lawyers and Other Briefs”, and then he secured a job as a character layout animator on “The Simpsons”, where he met Jeffrey Marsh, who later became his colleague on numerous projects, including “Phineas and Ferb”.
Concurrently with his work for “The Simpsons”, Dan started working as a writer for Nickelodeon’s series “Rocko’s Modern Life”, later joined by Jeffrey Marsh, and the two developed a distinctive style in drawing and writing, which brought them the Environmental Achievement Award for Children’s Animated Television Program for the 1996 episode “Zanzibar”.
From 1996 until 1998, Dan worked as a director for the animated series “Hey Arnold”, and from 2000 until 2007 for the series “Family Guy”, and was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) in 2006, which he shares with the rest of the crew.
Although the series “Phineas and Ferb” was conceived in 1993, Dan and Jeffrey spent nearly 15 years pitching the series to several networks, and even the Disney Company initially rejected it, but asked to keep the proposal packet; Dan didn’t have much hope, saying that it usually means that it will later be thrown in the trash.
However, in 2007, after the network approved the show for a 26-episode season, it became one of the favorites, and in the following year, already had its first Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, and then in 2009 it was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class – Short-Format Animated Programs.
In 2012 and ’14, the series was nominated for another Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program, while in 2016, it was nominated for Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
The series was broadcast until 2015, and meantime in 2011 the first movie “Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension” was filmed, while the second entitled “Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe” was released in 2020, and won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for an Animated Program, which Dan shares with the other writers, including his long-term fellow, Jeffrey Marsh, with whom he also worked for the animated series “Milo Murphy’s Law” in 2016.
Wife, children, daughter
Dan hasn’t been the subject of any rumors and controversies concerning his love life; it’s widely known that he’s married to Clarissa, about whom little is known, except that they dated for a few years before they tied the knot in 2001.
They have two daughters together, Isabella and Melissa, who were both an inspiration for some of his characters, for example, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, the across-the-street-neighbor who has a crush on Phineas, was named by his older daughter, while the character of Melissa, a young fireside girl, was first added in the second season in the episode “We Call it Maze”.
His daughters are not the only ones who inspired Dan – once he spoke about the character of Candace, saying that his sister Linda was an inspiration for Phineas’ and Ferb’s sister.
Dan and his wife prefer to keep their family life away from the media’s attention – they haven’t shared their daughters’ birthdays, and his wife doesn’t have any social media accounts, unlike Dan, who is very active on Instagram and TikTok.
He uses his accounts to interact with young creators and artists, giving them encouragement and advice, so it isn’t surprising that his TikTok account has been followed by nearly six million people, and all of his videos combined have gained over 150 million likes.
Age and net worth
Dan’s age is 58, and according to sources, as of May 2022, his net worth has been estimated at over $6 million, with most of his income earned as the creator of popular animated series. Ss he announced, he’s currently working on the new series entitled “Hamster and Gretel”, which will be premiered in late 2022.
Leave a Comment