PETER HANNAN is a writer, producer, creator, author/illustrator, and artist. He is the creator and executive producer of the Nickelodeon animated series CATDOG, overseeing all aspects (writing, storyboarding, character design, art direction, post-production) of a hundred and twenty-something 11-minute episodes and holiday specials. He produced Fetch, a CatDog theatrical short and a TV movie called CatDog and the Great Parent Mystery. He wrote and sang the CatDog theme song, which he will sing for you even if you don’t technically ask him to. He wrote many other songs for the series. He has developed and sold properties for film, TV, game, and books to numerous studios and publishers, including Nickelodeon, Universal, Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network, Disney, Klasky Csupo, Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Knopf. He is currently writer and story editor on a new animated series for PBS called LET'S GO LUNA!
He has a new animated comedy series of his own in development for a different network. Tons of songs and hilarity. He is also working on a variety of film, game, app, and book projects. He created and produced an animated online series called REALLY FREAKING EMBARRASSING—true stories, real people, total humiliation. Not for little kids...more like big snarky ones. He wrote a series of three irreverent novels for adults under a pseudonym that cannot be revealed. Really. Contractually.
His newest middle-grade illustrated book is PETLANDIA (Scholastic), which stars a group of house pets who revolt against their human family, kick them out of the house, and establish their own sovereign nation. That's when the real trouble starts. His recent illustrated novel from Scholastic is called MY BIG MOUTH: 10 SONGS I WROTE THAT ALMOST GOT ME KILLED. His picture book from HarperCollins, THE GREATEST SNOWMAN IN THE WORLD, was published in 2010. His 2011 series of middle-grade illustrated novels, called FREDDY, KIND OF FLURB, is about a kid who is abducted by aliens, and then, to his utter amazement, proclaimed king of their planet. He also wrote and illustrated a series of six middle-grade illustrated novels called SUPER GOOFBALLS, starring a dysfunctional group of avenging lunatics...Super Goofballs #1: That Stinking Feeling and Super Goofballs #2: Goofballs in Paradise, #3: Super Underwear...and Beyond!, #4: The Attack of the 50-Foot Alien Creep-oids, #5: Doomed in Dreamland, and #6: Battle of the Brain-Sucking Robots.
Hannan wrote and illustrated THE SILLYVILLE SAGA: Sillyville or Bust, Escape from Camp Wannabarf, School After Dark: Lessons in Lunacy, and The Battle of Sillyville: Live Silly or Die! He contributed stories to the anthologies Speak! Children’s Illustrators Brag About Their Dogs and Purr! Children’s Illustrators Brag About Their Cats.
He has worked as a consultant, character designer, writer, art director, and graphic designer in the creation of pitches and pitch materials for many projects and clients. He also works as a writer on other animated series.
He has written and illustrated newspaper and magazine pieces with titles like The Incredible Shrinking Christmas; The Good, the Bad, and the Irish; and Mike Royko Moves to the Suburbs. He has done tons of illustrations for newspapers, magazines, books, and advertising. His single-panel cartoons (THE ADVENTURES OF A HUGE MOUTH) have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, the Chicago Reader, many other periodicals, and in a book from Chicago Review Press. He has also worked as an illustrator, cartoonist, graphic designer, and art director for magazines and newspapers. He has exhibited his paintings, illustrations, and cartoons in a variety of galleries and venues. His work has been transformed into everything from toys to t-shirts to cheese crackers.
For the past couple of years, he has been somewhat obsessed with drawing on the iPad. Many of these drawings are available as limited edition prints here: https://squareup.com/market/peterhannanland
He co-founded a digital entertainment start-up called Granite Planet and an independent television production and distribution company called FutureVision. Among other things, they produced a cable TV series featuring concerts with numerous blues legends, including Muddy Waters, Albert King, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Bobby Blue Bland, Otis Rush, Blind John Davis, Eddie Clearwater, and Charlie Musselwhite. He is also on the advisory board of SZL.IT, a tech company. He is currently developing a start-up involving machine learning and creativity.
He teaches at Herberger Institute at Arizona State University. He has taught and led art, writing, music, and animation workshops for pre-school through college students. He has lectured, done readings, and book-signings at colleges, schools, bookstores, and conventions.
Hannan grew up on the Erie Canal in upstate New York, where he had a three-legged dog named Tipper, who once got his front paw caught in his collar and ran home using two legs on the same side of his body. Other pets he has loved include Gizmo, Stella, Scat, Honeybaked Hamster, Scarface, Billy Joe Bob Jr, Billy Joe Bob Jr Jr, Peeper, Peeve, Steve, Scram, Ping, Pong, Blackie, Binker, and Binker II. He lives in Los Angeles and has the best wife and children ever.