Mike Judge

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Mike Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an animator, voice actor, writer and producer, best known as the creator and star of the hit animated television series Beavis and Butt-head (1993-1997) and King of the Hill (1997-).

Although born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Judge was raised in New Mexico. He earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of California, San Diego, worked as an engineer and a musician, then moved to Dallas, Texas, to continue work as a musician. However, he soon turned to developing cartoons. In 1991 his short "Office Space" (also known as the Milton series of shorts) was picked up by Comedy Central following a Dallas animation festival. Then, in 1992 he developed "Frog Baseball", a short featuring the characters Beavis and Butt-head to be featured on Liquid Television. The short led to the creation of the Beavis and Butt-head series on MTV, in which Judge played both title characters as well as the majority of supporting characters. The show ran from 1993 to 1997 and spawned a feature length film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America, released in 1996.

In 1997, Judge left MTV to create King of the Hill for Fox. Many of the show's characters were based on people he'd known while living in Texas and Judge continued his voice acting by playing both Hank Hill and Boomhauer.

In 1999, Judge wrote and directed the live-action comedy film Office Space, which was based in part on the Milton series of cartoons he had created for Saturday Night Live. In the film, he made a cameo appearance as Stan, the anal retentive manager of Chotchkie's (complete with hairpiece and fake mustache). The film, whose budget was approximately $10 million, grossed only $10.8 million. "Office Space" has since become a cult classic, grossing millions in video and DVD sales.

Since fall 2003, Judge has run a very successful animation festival together with animator Don Hertzfeldt, called "The Animation Show." "The Animation Show" tours the country every year screening animated shorts from mostly independent animators.

Judge's film Idiocracy will be released in late 2006.

Mike Judge currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two children.

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