Promoted Fanboy / Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Fandom VIP Johanne Matte a.k.a. Rufftoon became a storyboard artist for the show.
  • Supposedly M. Night Shyamalan approached the people behind Avatar to create a live action movie because he was such a huge fan of the show. Based on the outcome, however, you could be forgiven for thinking the opposite.
  • Janet Varney, who plays the voice of Korra, was a big fan of Avatar before even hearing about the auditions for the lead role in the sequel. She said in an interview that after she auditioned for the part, she couldn't even watch the original show anymore because it would make her nervous about whether or not she'd land the role of Korra.
  • Seychelle Gabriel was also a fan of the cartoon before playing princess Yue in the live action movie then voicing Asami in The Legend of Korra.
  • Superstar women's tennis player Serena Williams is a huge fan of the show; she ended up voicing Iroh's kind prison guard in Book 3's The Day of Black Sun and one of the sages that finds Korra stranded on a beach with no memory in Book 2's Beginnings.
• Former NBA player Chris Bosh was a fan of X-Men: The Animated Series as a child. He later got to join the Marvel Universe when he voiced Heimdall in a Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode.
• Raven Molisee's fanarts for Ed, Edd n Eddy got the attention of AKA Cartoons and landed her a job as storyboard animator for the show. Word of God says this is "almost right".
• Fanartist Nina Matsumoto a.k.a. Spacecoyote drew a manga-styled picture of The Simpsons' cast. The pic quickly became an internet sensation, to the point where it caught the eyes of someone at Bongo Comics (publishers of The Simpsons' comic books), leading to her drawing an entire story ("Bartomu") for Bongo's 2008 Free Comic Book Day special (and promises of more work to come). Including a Death Note parody for the recent Treehouse Of Horror, which managed to win an Eisner Award. She is currently writing Yokaidan, a comic published through Del Ray Manga. And as for individuals who have gone into a Simpsons sound booth, Michael Moore, Tony Blair and Daniel Radcliffe, to name just three big-name guest stars, are known to appreciate the program. Barry White was such a fan he recorded a new version of "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe" for his guest appearance in "Whacking Day" rather than have the show use the existing track for his performance.
  • The Weeknd said on Twitter that his appearance on the show was "a dream come true" for him.
• Family Guy and The Cleveland Show fan Arif "Azerrz" Zahir gained some fame on the Internet for his pitch-perfect impression of Cleveland Brown, which he put to use in a series of "Cleveland Plays Modern Warfare" videos. In 2020 he became the official voice of Cleveland after Mike Henry stepped down from the role—which, funnily enough, makes his videos retroactively canon!
• As this article revealed, a lot of the people working behind Godzilla: The Series grew up with Godzilla and were huge fans of the character. This is one of the big reasons why the cartoon turned out to be a lot more faithful to the original Japanese franchise compared to the American movie it was spun off from.
• Disney:
  • Anika Noni Rose has stated that working for Disney, in any capacity at all, was her big dream. Then she was given the part of Tiana, main character of The Princess and the Frog and also an official Disney Princess.
  • Similarly, Zachary Levi stated in this making-of video for Tangled that getting to play the hero in a Disney film is like a dream he's still scared he'll wake up from. For bonus points, he's stated that the reason he took the role of Flynn Rider was so that he'd have a path to getting in a Kingdom Hearts game, a wish that finally came true in Kingdom Hearts III when he reprised the role.
  • Also from Tangled is Mandy Moore. She has said in interviews that she grew up loving the Disney Princesses and is thrilled about getting to play one. She has stated that Ariel was in fact her inspiration to start singing in the first place.
  • And Kristen Bell, who played Anna in Frozen. She was a huge fan of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, saying that she "had one of them on a loop in my house at all times".
  • Also, Jon Cryer has stated that he has always wanted to play a role in a Disney movie, and was ecstatic when he landed the role of Dusty in Planes. Unfortunately for him, he has since been replaced by Dane Cook.
  • Jason Marsden is a big fan of Disney; he even named his pets after Disney characters, and he got to play Kovu in Lion King 2. At the end of Behind the Microphone, he was really jazzed about how he can't believe he gets to be in a Disney movie. He also got to be Max Goof in A Goofy Movie, a role that he continued in for years.
  • Two die-hard childhood fans of Disney's Aladdin, Courtney Reed and James Monroe Iglehart, were cast as Jasmine and the Genie respectively in the premiere of the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation.
    • Similarly, The Little Mermaid fangirl Diana Huey got to play Ariel in the 2016-17 touring production of its stage musical. Her co-star Matthew Kacergis (Prince Eric) was also a Disney fanboy.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda, who grew up enthralled with Disney musical films, was hired to compose songs for Moana as well as Encanto and the Live-Action Adaptation of The Little Mermaid, with the last one having him honored to help write new songs with Alan Menken, as he was heavily influenced in his childhood by the works of Menken and his creative partner, the late Howard Ashman, especially their work on the 1989 version of The Little Mermaid. He even admitted "The Little Mermaid was the movie that made me fall in love with musicals" and that he couldn't write any new songs for Sebastian, as he felt what the two did was perfect enough for the crab. He also landed roles in Ducktales 2017 and Mary Poppins Returns (and, if you wanna get technical, he also made cameos in, and contributed to the soundtrack for, the Disney-distributed Star Wars films The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker). To top it all off, Disney+ distributed a filmed version of his musical Hamilton.
• Animator Katie Rice was a big fan of The Ren & Stimpy Show growing up, she eventually got to animate for Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". Her employment on the show, and her experiences with its creator, contributed to the end of John K's career.
• The majority of the new voice actors for the Looney Tunes characters are big fans of the original theatrical shorts. Bob Bergen in particular went as far as to track down Mel Blanc himself for voice acting lessons.
• An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian", was written by Renee Carter, Sarah Creef, and Amy Crosby, who at the time were only 13. As this article from the time reveals, they had sent the script to the show on a lark and by sheer blind luck, the script was actually read and sent along to Steven Spielberg, who decided to run with it. The show called attention to it both within the script (including a gag where Buster argues with the girls about his fear of planes) and in the promotion leading up to it.
  • The episode's Credits Gag: "Please Mail Your Unsolicited Manuscripts Along With A Self-Addressed Envelope To: Some Other Show!"
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Lauren Faust, who was a fan of My Little Pony toys as a child, was eventually hired to create a cartoon based on the toys, Friendship is Magic. It's even been said that the characters' personalities are the ones she gave them while playing with the toys. Here's her collection. This may explain the sheer number of Ascended Memes in the show and Faust being so protective of the fandom.
  • In 2011, Teddy Antonio submitted premises to Hasbro and was called by current showrunner Meghan McCarthy to work on an idea for an episode where Fluttershy and Discord become roommates. He was ultimately credited for the episode's story, which eventually became "Keep Calm and Flutter On". Not only is Antonio a brony, but he was only 15 years old.
  • Established fandubbers Kira Buckland and Brittany Lauda got to voice match the characters they often fan-voiced in the Power Ponies app.
  • An OC of fan musician Andrew Stein AKA MandoPony appears in Issue #7 of the comics and the Equestria Games episode.
  • Broadway actress Lena Hall is a "proud pegasister", and guest starred as Countess Coloratura in the Season 5 episode The Main Attraction, singing "The Magic Inside".
  • The third soundtrack album, Songs of Harmony, includes a mashup of "Winter Wrap-Up" and "A True True Friend" featuring brony musician BlackGryph0n (Gabriel Brown).
  • Patton Oswalt became a fan of the show after watching it with his daughter (even making it the subject of one of his routines) and later landed the role of Quibble Pants in the episodes "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" and "Common Ground". Said daughter Alice Rigney Oswalt also starred in the latter episode as Quibble Pants's stepdaughter Clear Sky.
  • Alexis Heule, a beneficiary of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, had her original character Angel Wings featured in Top Bolt.
  • The movie provides a soundtrack example of this. Lukas Graham, who performs the film's closing credits song "Off To See The World", loved playing with the original toys with his cousins as a kid.
  • Longtime Brony fan artist Imalou has stated on their Twitter that they worked as one of the character designers for My Little Pony: A New Generation.
• Lauren Faust was such a big fan of The Powerpuff Girls that she begged to be on the production team. She eventually produced, wrote, and directed several episodes, and ultimately wedded Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken.
• Controversy arose around the Hungarian dub of South Park, when the fans noticed that the dubbing script for one of Season 9's episodes matched the translations of a Fan Sub created (way earlier) by a fan called "vito" word-for-word. Unfortunately, as copyright laws don't quite tend to favor unofficial fan works, the dubbers got away with the deal. But something still happened, as beginning from Season 13, vito has been working on the real scripts for the show as its official translator. And he's also credited under that name.
• At various times on the bonus features of the Batman: The Animated Series DVDs, the various crew members admit to being "hardcore comic book geeks" who appreciated the old comics. One could say that the fact that they tried to make the series more like the comics they so loved was the main reason that the series is so well-done and fondly remembered. To add to this, in one of the books about The Joker, Mark Hamill was asked to do the forward. He mentions that the primary reason (in his mind) he was asked to play his most iconic role was due to showing off such enthusiasm for the project when he came in to voice the Corrupt Corporate Executive in "Heart of Ice".
• Rocky and Bullwinkle:
  • Keith Scott was an enthusiast of Jay Ward cartoons and wrote a book about the history of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The same year, he became the voice of Bullwinkle in the 2000 film version.
  • Robert De Niro was a fan of the show and not only did he get to play Fearless Leader in that same film, but he also co-produced it.
• Pendleton Ward was a huge fan of The Simpsons growing up. He even had his mom drive him to Matt Groening's house to get advice on how to create a great animated TV show. Lo and behold, he got a job storyboarding on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack after graduating from Cal Arts, and from there, created Adventure Time, which led full circle once a Couch Gag parody of his show's opening was created with his involvement.
• Ciro Neili was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles growing up; he even collected the comics before the 1987 cartoon premiered. He is now the show runner for the 2012 version on Nickelodeon, and he is even using original characters he designed when he was a kid.
• When Christopher Lee read for his part as King Haggard for The Last Unicorn, he arrived carrying a copy of the book with notes on what parts he'd like to see kept in.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Dan Povenmire are Marvel fans and were happy to include Marvel characters in a crossover episode. And then they got to do it again with Star Wars.
  • Speaking of Phineas and Ferb, the Season 4 episode "Act Your Age" was inspired by drawings of the characters as teenagers created by fan Ashley Michelle Simpson. Dan and Swampy brought on Simpson to help storyboard the episode, and hired her as a storyboard artist for their next show, Milo Murphy's Law.
• Tony Anselmo was always a fan of Donald Duck. He eventually became an animator at Disney. While working at Disney, he befriended Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald, who hand picked him to be his successor as the Duck's voice.
• Gina Rodriguez used to watch Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego as a child. She was also a fan of Rita Moreno and knew of her portrayal of Carmen on Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?. Gina now voices Carmen herself in the Carmen Sandiego Netflix series, she mentions in the foreword of Who in the World is Carmen Sandiego? she actually started crying when approached for the role.
• Dreamworks development executive Beth Cannon grew up with She-Ra: Princess of Power and was a fan of Lumberjanes and NIMONA. She eventually approached ND Stevenson, who created the latter two, to lead the She-Ra reboot She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, working with him on its creation.
• According to this article, this was the reason Kevin Meaney played Aloysius Pig in Garfield and Friends, as well as Widow Hutchison in Rocko's Modern Life: he always dreamed of being a voice actor for a cartoon series.
• This is the reason why Andy Samberg took a role in SpongeBob SquarePants: he was part of the show's Periphery Demographic when it first aired and became a big fan of it.
  • Jennifer Love Hewitt was cast in the live action segments of Party Pooper Pants because she was a huge fan of the show.
  • Sigourney Weaver, who had been a fan of the show since it premiered, would get a role in the 20th anniversary special of the show.
• Angela Santomero's favorite show as a kid was Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and she was friends with Fred Rogers from 1997 until 2003, the year he passed away. She would later end up as the creator of the spin-off Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.
• Christian Lanz grew up watching and learned English from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, and his favorite character was Fred. He became very happy when he was cast in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and got to meet Fred's voice actor Frank Welker.
• Animaniacs:
  • The short "Please Please Please Get A Life Foundation" quoted several posts by fans on the alt.tv.animaniacs newsgroup, specifically two guides about various pop culture references and goofs in the show.
  • In 1995, a group of 20 fans of the show got to visit the Warner Brothers Studios to meet some of the voice actors on the show, watch several then-unaired shorts, sing a spoof of the theme song with the cast and watch the scoring session for "Bingo".
  • One fan of the show, Ron O'Dell, known as "Keeper" by the fandom, was known for wearing a distinctive hat. This would later be drawn on The Lobe in fellow WB animated series Freakazoid!.
• When Nickelodeon heard the story of how an eight-year-old girl named Francesca Valencia saved her friend from choking on a jawbreaker thanks to the Hey Arnold! episode "Eugene's Bike", they invited her and said friend to tour the Nickelodeon studios and preview the episode "Stuck in a Tree".
• Jimmy Kimmel and Tyler Perry both became fans of PAW Patrol because of their kids, and later got to star in the show's movie.
• According to this Japanese trailer for Inside Out, the Japanese voice actresses for Joy and Sadness (Yuko Takeuchi and Shinobu Otake) starred in the film because they were big fans of Pixar's work, and in Japan, the film celebrated Pixar's 20th anniversary.
• Brian Hull, who is well-known for impersonating various Disney characters as well as several other animated characters, landed roles in Tangled: The Series and Hotel Transylvania: Transformania.
• The Legend of Vox Machina has several people in the production team who were fans of Critical Role, in particular lead animator Arthur Loftis^note  who had previously worked on Voltron: Legendary Defender amongst others and composer Neal Acree^note famous for the scores of various games such as World of Warcraft (since at least Burning Crusade) and Overwatch.
• Rebecca Bozza (aka Rebecca Rose) published videos analyzing The Owl House ever since it first aired. Starting with the episode "Edge of the World", she works as a production associate on the show.
• Cedric L. Williams grew up watching Face on Nick Jr..as a child, and he was very excited to voice the character in Face's Music Party. As revealed in an interview with TV Insider, he was enthusiastic about the opportunity to introduce the character to a new generation of children.
• Bluey: Lin-Manuel Miranda, who voices Major Tom in "Stories", stated that he and his family were big fans of Bluey and that it was their most-watched show during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Eugene Son was a big G.I. Joe fan, even co-founding the quintessential G.I. Joe fansite Yojoe.com. He would go on to become a TV writer and pen episodes of G.I. Joe: Renegades.
• Examples involving the Thomas & Friends franchise:
  • Michael White, also known as Whitehouse Films, is a fan of the show who knew Andrew Brenner personally. Andrew Brenner invited him to work on the series, and White ended up writing the season 22 episodes "An Engine of Many Colours" and "Hunt the Truck", and the season 23 episodes "Free the Roads", "Heart of Gold", "Out of Site" and "Deep Trouble". He was even allowed to write an episode for the 2D reboot.
  • Daniel Share-Strom, a writer who joined the staff during the latter half of the first season of the reboot, respected Thomas & Friends as a beloved cultural franchise, and he admitted in an AMA that he did a Double Take before completely flipping out upon realizing that he just joined the creative team of a cultural icon.
  • Aaron Barashi was a huge fan of the franchise before he was cast as the UK voice of Thomas in the reboot. According to this interview, Aaron loved playing with Thomas toys as a toddler and from there, he became a fan of the cartoon, so naturally, he was excited when he found out that that he had landed the role of Thomas.