Special Guests and Show Highlights

Phil Ortiz grew up in East LA of Mexican and Spanish/Norwegian parents in 1953. He currently lives and works in the beautiful Lake Arrowhead area. Over his more than 30 years as a professional artist, Phil has worked on everything from daily newspaper comic strips (Bugs Bunny) to layouts and character design for animated cartoons including The Simpsons where Phil had a hand in the look of about 200 characters on the longest running comedy series in TV history. Some of the notable characters Phil designed for the Simpsons include: Flanders, Otto, Herman, Lou and Eddie, Ralph, and Apu. Phil has won five CERTIFICATES of ACHIEVEMENT for his work in TV animation and has been drawing for The Simpsons comic books for many years. He won three of these Awards for work on Jim Henson's Muppet Babies animated series. He has also worked on Disney's illustrated books and for Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. Animation, Ruby Spears, and many other animation studios in his long career. Phil's talents include designing merchandise items and speaking to students from all over the world about his art form.