Starburns Industries
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation Television production Film production |
| Genre | Television and Film company |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founder | |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
Number of locations | 2 (2025) |
Key people | James A. Fino (CEO) Duke Johnson (CFO) Dino Stamatopolous (Secretary) |
| Products | |
| Services | |
| $20 million (2025) | |
Number of employees | 51-200 (2025) |
| Divisions | |
| Website | www |
Starburns Industries, LLC is an American animation studio and production company based in Burbank, California. It was founded in 2010 by Dan Harmon, Dino Stamatopoulos, Joe Russo II, James A. Fino, and Duke Johnson.[1][2][3]
The company is best known for their shows, such as Mary Shelley's Frankenhole and the first two seasons of Rick and Morty for Adult Swim; HarmonQuest for Seeso / VRV; Animals for HBO; Good Game for YouTube Premium; and the first season of The Freak Brothers for Tubi.
History
The company's name is a direct reference to the recurring character, Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne, from Harmon's sitcom, Community, who was played by Stamatopoulos.
The studio was initially launched to produce the Emmy Award-winning stop-motion holiday special for Community titled "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas".
The success of this project helped solidify the company's focus on high-quality, creator-led animation projects.[4]
In 2013, independent podcast network, Feral Audio, moved its operations into the Starburns Industries studio in Burbank, in which the company eventually became a partial owner of the network. When Dustin Marshall shut down the company in 2017, due to abuse allegations with his ex-girlfriend, Starburns Industries stepped in and rebranded the remains of the network as Starburns Audio.[5][6][7]
In January 2020, Harmon departed from the company to focus his time and attention on the development of his other projects, including Rick and Morty. The production of Rick and Morty had already transitioned to a separate entity, Rick and Morty LLC, which operates out of the Starburns facility.[8][9][10][11]
Filmography
TV
| Title | Creator / Developer(s) | Co-production(s) | Premiere date | End date | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mary Shelley's Frankenhole | Dino Stamatopoulos | ShadowMachine Fragical Productions (both; season 1) |
June 27, 2010 | March 25, 2012 | Adult Swim | Season 2 only. |
| Rick and Morty | Justin Roiland Dan Harmon |
Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions! (seasons 1–8) Harmonious Claptrap |
December 2, 2013 | present | Seasons 1-2 only. Longest running show by the company. | |
| Animals | Phil Matarese Mike Luciano |
Karen BBQ Duplass Brothers Television HBO Entertainment |
February 5, 2016 | October 5, 2018 | HBO | |
| Great Minds with Dan Harmon | Dan Harmon Richard Korson |
Matador Content | February 25, 2016 | June 16, 2016 | History Channel | |
| HarmonQuest | Dan Harmon Spencer Crittenden |
Harmonious Claptrap Universal Content Productions |
July 14, 2016 | October 20, 2019 | Seeso (2016) VRV (2017-19) | |
| Good Game | Jesse Cox Michele Morrow |
August 30, 2017 | September 27, 2017 | YouTube Premium | ||
| Alpha Betas | Chris Bruno David Howard Lee |
3BLACKDOT Bush House Bruno & Lee Octopie Studios |
March 14, 2021 | present | YouTube | Episode 1 only. |
| Woman in the Book | Daniel Persitz | Crypt TV | June 4, 2021 | August 6, 2021 | Facebook (Facebook Watch) | |
| The Freak Brothers |
|
Pure Imagination Studios WTG Enterprises Lionsgate Television |
November 14, 2021 | present | Tubi | Season 1 only. |
| Better Call Saul Presents: Slippin' Jimmy | Ariel Levine Kathleen Williams-Foshee |
AMC Networks Content Room | May 23, 2022 | AMC+ | 6-part miniseries. | |
Movies
| Title | Director(s) | Premiere date | Distributor | Co-production with | Runtime | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harmontown | Neil Berkeley | March 8, 2014 | The Orchard | 1h. | First film by the company. Based on the Harmontown podcast. | |
| Anomalisa | Charlie Kaufman Duke Johnson |
September 4, 2015 (Telluride Film Festival) |
Paramount Pictures | 1 hr, 30 min. | ||
| Dope State | Gabriel Sunday | April 20, 2019 | YouTube | Route One Entertainment | 2 hr, 12 min. | |
| Claydream | Marq Evans | June 13, 2021 | Oscilloscope Laboratories | XYZ Films | 1 hr, 36 min. | |
| Godkrusher | Casey Rup | December 31, 2022 | YouTube | Infinite Timelines |
Specials
Television specials
| Show | Title | Premiere date | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community | Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas | December 9, 2010 | NBC | First production by Starburns Industries. Stop-motion special. |
| Moral Orel | Beforel Orel: Trust | November 18, 2012 | Adult Swim | |
| Community | G.I. Jeff | April 3, 2014 | NBC | |
| Art Prison | July 29, 2018 | Adult Swim | ||
| The Emperor's Newest Clothes | November 15, 2018 | HBO | Based on The Emperor's New Clothes, by Hans Christian Andersen. |
Shorts
| Title | Premiere date | Director(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unholy 'Mole | September 8, 2019 | David Bornstein | |
| The Black Hole | July 21, 2021 | Sofia Åström | Made as a pilot for an animated show on SyFy, but wasn't picked up for a full series. |
| My Year of Dicks | February 17, 2023 | Sara Gunnsardóttir |
Podcasts
| Title | Creator | Premiere date | End date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harmontown | Dan Harmon | June 16, 2012 | December 3, 2019 |
| Before You Were Funny | Justin Michael Jacob Reed |
July 2012 | September 2016 |
| Singsongers | Dino Stamatopoulos | April 25, 2017 | November 16, 2017 |
| Whiting Wongs | Dan Harmon Jessica Gao |
2017 | 2018 |
Commercials
- JCPenney (2022)
- Old Navy
- Little Caesars (2015)
- CareerBuilder
- Bud Light
- Men's Wearhouse (2015)
- Guinness Draught
- Motorola
- NetZero
- Kyocera
- Pop Secret
- Chex Mix
- Instacart (2025)
Divisions
Starburns Audio
| Genre | Radio |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2018 |
| Defunct | April 2023 |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Parent | Starburns Industries |
Starburns Audio was the podcast network and audio production division of Starburns Industries. It was launched as a new venture in 2018, partially growing out of the assets and shows of the now-defunct Feral Audio podcast network.
The division produced and archived podcasts from its parent network, such as Harmontown, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, Dumb People Town, The Boogie Monster, and Singsongers.
The podcast network, occasionally faced criticism from listeners over the placement of controversial or politically charged advertisements that were not aligned with the values of the individual shows or their hosts.
On April 7, 2023, comedian Adam Conover stated on X that Starburns Audio officially ceased operations and shut down.[12]
SBI Press
| Industry | Comics and Graphic novels |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founder | Simon Ore |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
Key people | Simon Ore (President) Brendan Wright (Vice President) Eric M. Esquivel Trevor Richardson (VP of Acquisitions) |
| Parent | Starburns Industries |
SBI Press is the publishing division of Starburns Industries. It was founded by Starburns executive, Simon Ore, in 2017.
Unlike its parent company, the division primarily publishes comic books, graphic novels, and occasionally other specialty printed media.
The division was also launched to provide a quicker outlet for the studio's creators and collaborators to develop original intellectual property outside of the long production cycles of film and television.
In 2018, SBI Press partnered with Diamond Comic Distributors for exclusive worldwide distribution, securing a pathway into the comic book specialty, book, and hobby markets.
Bibliography
| Title | Writer(s) | Date(s) | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gregory Graves | Dan Harmon Eric M. Esquivel |
2017 | First singular graphic novel. |
| Comics Comics (Comics Comics Quarterly) |
Various | 2018-present | Anthology series. |
| Starburns Presents | 2018 | ||
| Hellicious | Mina Elwell AC Medina |
2018-19 | |
| Trent: A Light Tragedy with Music | Dino Stamatopoulos Leah Tiscione |
August 21, 2018 | Second singular graphic novel. |
| Fantasmagoria | Eric M. Esquivel James A. Fino |
September 26, 2018 | First bilingual comic by the company. |
| Oddwell: The Frog of War | David A. Clarke Walter A. Bryant III |
2018-19 | |
| Gryffn | Ben Kahn Bruno Hidalgo Sal Cipriano |
2019 | |
| Rafael Garcia: Henchman | Peter Murrieta Ben Herrera |
2021-present |
References
- ^ Broughton, Travis (2025-03-05). "Announcing the Adult Comedy Animated Series Fellowship presented by Starburns Industries!". Austin Film Festival. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ^ "Starburns Industries Press Comes To Previews". previewsworld.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ^ "Starburns Industries - Gaming, Music Company Profile, Funding Rounds and Investors". bouncewatch.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ^ "Charitybuzz: Meet the Minds Behind Starburns Industries, An Imaginative Production Company Specializing in Animation". /www.Charitybuzz.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ^ Wright, Megh (2018-01-02). "Feral Audio Shuts Down After Abuse Allegations Surface Against Founder Dustin Marshall". Vulture. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
- ^ Quah, Nicholas (2017-12-27). "Feral Audio, a Top Podcast Network, Being Shut Down by Founder After Abuse Claim". Vulture. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
- ^ "Feral Audio is dissolving; Starburns Industries launching SBI: Audio podcast network in its wake – The Comic's Comic". 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
- ^ Milligan, Mercedes (2020-01-11). "Dan Harmon Departs Starburns Industries". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ^ Anderton, Ethan (2020-01-09). "'Rick And Morty' Co-Creator Dan Harmon Left His Starburns Industries Production Company Some Time Ago". SlashFilm. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
- ^ Wit, Alex Dudok de (2020-01-14). "'Rick And Morty' Co-Creator Dan Harmon Has Left Starburns Industries, The Company He Co-Founded". Retrieved 2025-12-07.
- ^ Sneider, Jeff (2020-01-08). "Dan Harmon Exits Production Company Starburns Industries". Collider. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
- ^ Conover, Adam (April 7, 2023). "Some news: Factually's podcast network, Starburns Audio, suddenly shut down last week. Starburns was an awesome, creator-powered network that helped countless comedians start and monetize their podcast, and I'm really going to miss working with them".