In January, 2007, Seth Green hired Kevin Shinick to be a writer on Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken and their Robot Chicken: Star Wars specials. There, Shinick voiced many of the show’s characters and worked his way up to being Creative Director until he left in 2009.
While at Robot Chicken, Shinick met fellow writer Hugh Davidson, who left to reboot Looney Tunes for Warner Bros. Animation. They were looking to create an animated sketch comedy show for teens and pre-teens based on MAD magazine for Cartoon Network and Davidson suggested Shinick. Shinick wrote the pilot and has been the showrunner/producer/head writer/voice director and most frequent voice talent for MAD ever since. The show debuted in September, 2010, the same month he won an Emmy for his work on Robot Chicken, and even more importantly, became a first-time dad to daughter, Maisy.
Shinick won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program Short-format as a writer/voice actor/creative director on Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. Now Shinick is Emmy-nominated again in the same category for the second year in a row for MAD, where he’s the showrunner/writer/main voice talent/voice director (let’s just say he’s the great and powerful Oz of MAD and you’ll get the gist) on Cartoon Network. MAD has a grueling year-round work schedule, but Shinick is always up to the task. Just look at what he has going on this fall:
On September 3, Shinick guest starred on NBC’s Grimm as a character who, um, reveals his animal instincts when a plague comes to town (Porcupine Man).
On September 9, Shinick was co-producer, writer and Narrator (much like Ted Knight on Superfriends) on the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special on Adult Swim, which was #1 in the young male demo.
On September 12, Shinick released his first Avenging Spider-Man #12 comic for Marvel. We discussed this with him in our interview. His second issue came out on October 10th.
On October 29, MAD’s Halloween Special (last year’s nabbed an Emmy nom!) will focus on FrankenWINNIE, a parody of Tim Burton’s upcoming movie, Frankenweenie, only it’s Christopher Robin who tries to bring his beloved Winnie the Pooh back to life after he’s accidentally ripped in half.
In December, it’s the MAD Xmas special. In January, Shinick will guest star in the pilot of David E Kelly’s medical drama for TBS, Monday Mornings along with Alfred Molina, Ving Rhames and Battlestar Galactica’s Jamie Bamber.
ToonBarn’s Marc Morrell met up with Kevin Shinick this past weekend at New York Comic Con, just a couple hours before the Robot Chicken Panel, where it was revealed that Robot Chicken was picked up by Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim for a Seventh Season.
Stay tuned to ToonBarn for more of Marc Morrell’s interviews from New York Comic Con. There’s lots more to come… on ToonBarn.
