Joe Ansolabehere

Joseph Michael "Joe" Ansolabehere (pronounced "An-so-lo-bare"; born June 18th, 1959) is a writer on Let's Go Luna!. He was best known as the co-creator of the hit animated series Recess with his partner Paul German.

Biography
Joe Ansolabehere was born in Sacramento, California, of Basque descent. Ansolabehere is the oldest of five brothers. His brother named Stephen is a well known political scientist and Frank G. Thomson is a Professor of Government at Harvard. His brother Paul is a vice president of Anagram in Minneapolis and with his youngest brother, Louis. He is a computer technician. As children they moved around often, living in Detroit, Champaign, Reno-Sparks, and Minneapolis.

Ansolabehere graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, and then went to UCLA for film school, where he was introduced to the world of animation.

In the early 1980s, Ansolabehere partnered with Steve Viksten to write screenplays. Together they wrote and sold several comedy screenplays, including Surfin CIA, Exterminators, Crooked Affair, and Sitting Ducks. None of their scripts were ever produced, and by the end of the 1980s, Ansolabehere found himself working for his friends at Rhythm and Hues as a producer of computer animation, mostly for commercials. It was while working at R&H that Joe was contacted by an old friend from UCLA, Paul Germain. Germain had recently co-created (with Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo) and sold the show Rugrats to Nickelodeon, and was looking for writers. Ansolabehere began working on Rugrats - first with his old partner Steve Viksten, and then on his own - and eventually became one of the first head story editors on the show. It was here that he met Craig Bartlett (who had been the first story editor on the show). They became great friends, and a few years later when Bartlett sold Hey Arnold! to Nickelodeon, he would ask Joe to work on it with him. In 1996, Paul & Joe pitched and sold the animated series for Disney called Recess, the show is about the adventures of TJ Detweller and his gang at 3rd Street School during recess. The show became their biggest success and it pave the way for the film Recess Schools Out.

Ansolabehere has written and produced for many animated television shows, including Rugrats, Beethoven, Dinosaur Train, Duckman, Hey Arnold!, Lloyd In Space, Pound Puppies, Dexter's Laboratory, Peter Rabbit, Oki's Oasis and the hit show Recess which he Co-created with Paul German.

Episodes Written

 * A Tough Nut To Crack
 * If a Hamster Could Fly
 * Lights Out!
 * Way Down in London Town

Trivia

 * He is the co-creator of the animated series Recess.