Writer

It's always fun to write the little bit of TV that the characters watch in 'Gravity Falls,' because it's a perfect place to poke fun at the media.

When I was a kid, back in the days before cell phone cameras, I had disposable cameras I took a lot of pictures with and I just remember something always went wrong.

My sister, when we were in Elementary school, had one particular lime green fuzzy troll doll sweater with a gem sticking out of the belly and actual hair that stuck to it, and I just remember, even though I was very young, being like 'This is unusual. It is weird that she is wearing this in public.'

Gravity Falls' normally follows very particular rules: we start out in reality close to the world as we know it, usually one magical element presents itself, and then it's essentially vanished or hidden back to where it came from by the end of the 20 minutes.

A weird show attracts weird fans!

Cliffhangers are a lot of fun, but I think they can be easily abused if you're not careful.

I spent 90 percent of my childhood playing SNES and N64, and my favorite games were the ones packed with secrets.

To see where I've stolen all my ideas from, look no further than the comics at your local comic shop!

I can speak to my experience and say that CalArts worked out very well for me. After CalArts, I went to Cartoon Network, and then came to Disney.

The puberty train came late to the station for me. I was the shortest kid in my sixth-grade class - they made me pose for the yearbook with the tallest kid for comedic contrast.

I think good kids TV has got to have layers. It has to have compelling characters that everyone loves, but you can't dumb it down.

I feel like the best kids shows aren't just for kids.

A lot of the fun of 'Gravity Falls' comes from the secrecy surrounding the plot. We want fans to be able to guess and speculate, to be surprised by twists and be engaged when they get things right.

There are so many shows that go on endlessly until they lose their original spark, or mysteries that are cancelled before they ever get a chance to payoff.

Cute animals have a pretty good track record in animation for inspiring passionate fandom.

Gravity Falls' is a very hard show to produce.

One thing that's a lot harder to put into stories than you'd think is the idea of a traditional monster, because monsters with a capital 'M' don't inherently lend themselves to a story about your character. Unless one of your characters is themselves the monster, simply having a monster leads to a chase or a hunt.

I think the key as a creator is to just trust your own intuition, and follow your passion and trust that if you make something you love, an audience who loves it will find it.

I was obsessed with the Loch Ness Monster, I would look through these books in the library and dream about visiting Loch Ness one day... That stuff was really kind of what I loved as a kid.

Everyone has days where they don't get their way, where you have to go to bed early or you have too much homework to do or you can't eat the candy that you want or you miss your favorite TV show and, in those moments, you just want to tear the whole world down.