Steve Loter

Steven Edward Loter is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and producer. His work includes Kim Possible and developing Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

Biography

Loter's earliest works were as a character designer for Disney Consumer Products and at Jim Henson Productions. He started his work as a director directing episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show, where he learned from the team about helming an animated production. He later worked as a director and producer on Kim Possible starting on season 2, as well as on Brandy & Mr. Whiskers and American Dragon: Jake Long. Loter also directed the Happy Monster Band, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Disney's The Legend of Tarzan series, as well as episodes of Duckman and Stressed Eric. In 2001, he was hired as an additional director for Kevin Smith's Clerks The Animated Series. Unusual for a 6-episode series at that time to have more than two directors, Loter was hired due to fellow directors Chris Bailey and Nick Fillipi being too busy with their episodes to focus on episodes 4 and 6, which he ended up directing. Loter applied his experience on Ren & Stimpy and Duckman for his work on the show.

In 2008, he directed a music video for the song "Hidden in the Sand", for the indie rock band Tally Hall. He was also an animation director for The Penguins of Madagascar, which won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2012 for Outstanding Animated Program.

Loter announced he was directing the feature film Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast from DisneyToon Studios, at the D23 Expo on August 9, 2013. The film is from the Tinker Bell film series and is executive produced by John Lasseter. It was released direct-to-video on March 3, 2015. Loter, who was approached by Lasseter to pitch a Tinker Bell film, drew inspiration for the film's story on his daughter's love for animals and his own experiences as a father. According to himself, Loter practiced pitching the project to his wife. He worked with the production teams for Secret of the Wings and The Pirate Fairy to ensure continuity within the films.

Starting on 2021, Loter works as an executive-producer on The Ghost and Molly McGee, having joined the series due to long time collaborators Bill Roth and Bob Motz serving as showrunners. As of 2023, Loter serves as showrunner and an executive producer on Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, based on the comic book characters of the same name. Loter was contacted by actor Laurence Fishburne to serve as an executive-producer on the series due to his work on Kim Possible. Having been a fan of Marvel comics since childhood and excited at the idea of working with Fishburne, Loter accepted. Loter and the team pitched the series to Disney with a roller-skating sequence featuring Childish Gambino's "Sweatpants", which was approved by Disney. From this position, he approached musician Raphael Saadiq to compose the score and provide songs for the series, being a fan of his; the two were previously set to collaborate on the cancelled Cars spin-off film Metro.

Personal life

Loter is married, and has a daughter and a son. Loter was born and raised in New York City and moved to Los Angeles.

As a child, he used to watch Looney Tunes shorts and "a very poorly subtitled" bootleg of My Neighbor Totoro, which he credited as inspirations for his work on animation. He also cited Lilo & Stitch as a personal inspiration.

Loter is a fan of anime, particularly Cowboy Bebop, and often references it in his animation work, something he described as "one of the things [he's] known for". He is a fan of Marvel Comics, and noted some Inhumans to be among his favorite characters.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Credited as
		Director	Producer	Writer	Notes
2002	Tarzan & Jane	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Direct-to-video film
2003	Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Television film
2005	Kim Possible: So the Drama	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2015	Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Direct-to-video film

Television

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
		Director	Producer	Animation department
1993-1995	The Ren & Stimpy Show	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Layout supervisor
1994-1997	Duckman	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Retake supervisor (episode: "Das Dub")
1994-1995	The Baby Huey Show	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
1998-2000	Stressed Eric	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
1998-2004	Rocket Power	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Unaired pilot only
2000-2002	Clerks: The Animated Series	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2001-2002	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2001-2003	The Legend of Tarzan	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2002-2007	Kim Possible	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2006	Brandy & Mr. Whiskers	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2006-2007	American Dragon: Jake Long	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2008-2015	The Penguins of Madagascar	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2021–2024	The Ghost and Molly McGee	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
2023–present	Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Also developer and showrunner

Nominations and awards

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref
2002	29th Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Special Class Animated Program	The Legend of Tarzan	Template:Nom
2005	32nd Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Children's Animated Program	Kim Possible	Template:Nom
2008	35th Annie Awards	Best Animated Television Production		Template:Nom
2012	39th Annie Awards	Directing in a Television Production	The Penguins of Madagascar	Template:Nom
	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program		Template:Won
2022	Children's and Family Emmy Awards	Outstanding Main Title and Graphics	The Ghost and Molly McGee	Template:Nom
2023	TCA Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming	Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur	Template:Nom
	Children's and Family Emmy Awards	Outstanding Children's or Young Teen Animated Series		Template:Nom
		Outstanding Special Class Animated Program		Template:Win
2024	GLAAD Media Award	Outstanding Kids & Family Programming or Film – Animated		Template:Nom

External links

• Template:IMDb name
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