Biography
Born in Sacramento, California, of Basque descent, Ansolabehere is the oldest of five brothers. His brother Stephen is a well known political scientist, who has written several books including Going Negative, and who has taught at MIT and Harvard. Brother Paul is a vice president of the balloon manufacturing company Anagram in Minneapolis. And youngest Louis is a computer technician, working for the Cargill Corporation. As a child, the Ansolabeheres moved all over the U.S, living in such cities as Detroit, Champaign, Reno-Sparks, and Minneapolis. Joe graduated from Reed High in Sparks, Nevada in 1977, and enrolled into the University of Nevada, Reno to study history. There, he was influenced by the film classes of Howard Rosenberg and decided to try his hand in Hollywood. He moved to L.A., and enrolled at UCLA for film school. It was there that he was introduced to the world of animation.
In the early 1980s, Ansolabehere partnered with Steve Viksten to write screenplays. Together the wrote and sold several comedy screenplays, including Surfin CIA, Exterminators,Crooked Affair, and Sitting Ducks. But none of their scripts were ever produced, and by the end of the 1980s, Ansolabehere found himself working for his friends at Rhythm and Hues, as a producer of computer animation—mostly for commercials. It was while working at R&H, that Joe was contacted by an old friend from UCLA, Paul Germain. Germain had recently co-created (with Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo) and sold the show Rugrats to Nickelodeon, and was looking for writers. Ansolabehere began working on Rugrats-- first with his old partner Steve Viksten, and then on his own, eventually becoming one of the first Head Story Editors on the show. It was here also that he met Craig Bartlett (who had been the first story editor on the show.) They became great friends as well, and a few years later, when Bartlett sold Hey Arnold! to Nickelodeon, he would ask Joe to work on it with him.
Ansolabehere has written and produced for many animated television shows, including Rugrats, Beethoven, Duckman, Hey Arnold!, Recess, Lloyd In Space, Dinosaur Train, Pound Puppies, Peter Rabbit, and Oki's Oasis.
He executive produced the movie Recess: School's Out and has recently been credited as a screenwriter on Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue.
Ansolabehere is co-owner of Paul & Joe Productions. Together, the team has worked on many projects for Disney, Nickelodeon, and DreamWorks Animation.
Read more about this topic: Joe Ansolabehere
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