Phil Roman

Philip Roman (born December 21, 1930 in Fresno, California) is an American animator. He is the founder of animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment. Roman is of Mexican American descent. Early in his career, Roman was an animator for Chuck Jones's independent studios, Sib Tower 12 Productions and later Chuck Jones Productions. He was a lead animator for 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and provided an audio commentary along with June Foray on the DVD release of the film. The animation studio he founded, Film Roman, produced the animation for The Simpsons (1992-2016) and King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox and MTV, as well as the Garfield animated television specials and subsequent series, Garfield and Friends. Roman directed the first eleven of the twelve prime-time Garfield animated television specials broadcast between 1982 and 1991. He also appeared in person in the 1988 documentary TV special Happy Birthday, Garfield, which went behind the scenes of both the comic strip and the animated versions of Garfield. In 1992, Roman directed Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Film Roman's first theatrical feature. Prior to running his own company, Roman also directed several of the Peanuts specials produced at Bill Melendez' studio. Phil Roman sold Film Roman in 1999 and formed Phil Roman Entertainment. The company produced the animated special Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Recently, Roman has served as the production supervisor and executive producer in the Mexican-American animated film El Americano: The Movie, set to be released in January 2016. Following Film Roman's purchase by Waterman Entertainment, Roman returned to the company he founded as chairman emeritus.