Aurelio Voltaire

Voltaire is often referred to as a modern day renaissance man having achieved success in the fields of animation, toy design, comics, books and music. Voltaire (full name, Aurelio Voltaire Hernandez) emigrated to the United States from Cuba as a small child. His family eventually settled in New Jersey. As a child, Voltaire was enthralled by the films of Ray Harryhausen ( Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) and set out to become a stop-motion animator. At the age of ten, he bought a super 8 camera with a single frame function and began making stop-motion films in the basement of his childhood home. Seven years later, disagreements with his family regarding his increasingly alternative appearance and a general dissatisfaction with what he saw as the "narrow-minded views" that permeated the small town he lived in, Voltaire ran away from home and went to New York City where he has resided ever since. Aurelio Voltaire started his career as a stop-motion animator and director in the eighties, at a handful of New York City animation houses, During those years, a teen-aged Voltaire animated stop-motion commercials for Budweiser, Ikea, RC cola, Hess, Parker Brothers, Kellogg's, Arm and Hammer, Marvel and many others. He made his mark as a director shortly thereafter creating award winning station IDs for MTV including the now classic "MTV Bosch". Based on the work of Hieronymus Bosch, the 15th century, Flemish painter, this station ID brought to life the hell panel of his famous "Garden of Earthly Delights" triptych via stop-motion animation. The spot took home a handful of awards and was included in a time capsule of 20th century programming that was shot into space. Moreover, it established Voltaire's unique style of whimsically dark animation and surreal storytelling. Voltaire then went on to direct a handful of horror, sci-fi and Halloween oriented station IDs for SyFy Channel, USA Networks, Discovery, The Learning Channel, Fangoria and others . Eventually, feeling he had long-form stories of his own to tell, Voltaire created several comic book series including the cult classics; Oh My Goth!, Human Suck, Chi-Chian (which went on to become a 14-episode animated web-series for the SyFy Channel's website. The series was written and directed by Voltaire and starred Bai Ling as the voice of Chi-Chian. The property has recently been optioned to be developed into a live action feature film. ) and most recently Deady, the tale of an extraterrestrial, evil teddy bear. The latter featured collaborations with some of the biggest names in macabre comics including Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, James O'Barr, Roman Dirge, Gris Grimly, Junko Mizuno, David Mack and many others. Deady has also spun off into a line of toys including plush toys, Hot Wheels cars for the Japanese market, an on-line video game and more than a dozen collectible vinyl figures including most recently a collaboration with Disney and the premiere designer vinyl company, Mindstyle. To add yet another career swerve, in 1995 Voltaire took the stage at a New York City club and performed a set of his songs. His strange brew of murder ballads, cynical, tongue-in-cheek tunes about social ills, religion and the undead found a fast following amongst the denizens of the New York City Goth scene. He was signed to Projekt Records and developed a world-wide audience through touring and the release of over seven albums. Many in the mainstream know Voltaire as the writer and performer of the songs "Brains!" and "Land of the Dead" on the Cartoon Network show, "The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy". Voltaire is presently working on a CD for kids called "Spooky Songs for Creepy Kids" as well as a country CD, both to be released in 2010. Finally, after ten years away from the film business, Aurelio Voltaire has returned to making films for the love of it. He is presently working on a series of shorts call the "Chimerascope series". Based on the station ID work he did for MTV and SyFy Channel, each film is about a minute or two long, animated in stop-motion animation and feature narrations by singers of note. The first four films in the series are narrated by Danny Elfman (Oingo Boingo), Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), Deborah Harry (Blondie) and Richard Butler (The Psychedelic Furs). The films have toured the festival circuit and have been seen at scores of horror and animation film festivals around the world as well as collected a handful of awards. More Chimerascope shorts are presently in the works as well as a live action, horror/comedy feature film.