Prior to his work on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Maiellaro was a producer and writer for Space Ghost Coast to Coast since the show's inception in 1994. Maiellaro met friend and future writing partner, Dave Willis, when he came on as a staff writer in 1995.[1] The two have since made a few short independent films together, most notably the live-action short A Day Off, which follows a Michael Myers puppet and documents what he does on his day off from murder.
In 2000, Maiellaro and Willis created a spin-off from Space Ghost Coast to Coast – Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Seven years later, Maiellaro and Willis released a full-length Aqua Teen Hunger Forcefeature film on April 13, 2007.[2] His writing is characterized by surreal humour and at times, a total disregard for traditional forms of storytelling.
Maiellaro provides the voice of Err the Mooninite,[4] the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, and other various roles on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as well as various characters for the other Adult Swim shows he's involved with. When voice acting on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, he is sometimes credited as "The Amazing Voice of Matt Maiellaro". Maiellaro also provided the voice for Mouse Fitzgerald, the main protagonist in his series 12 oz. Mouse. Most of the time, his voice is modified through Autotune.[5]
In 2006, Maiellaro had a cameo as a cricket in the English dub of the anime Ergo Proxy.
In 2011, Maiellaro was making Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 which was running into its 12th season, with season 13 being announced by him that year. The same year, he also announced that he is working on the Mad Libs movie with Appian Way Productions, but it was cancelled.[7]
Music
Around 1999, Maiellaro and longtime friend Barry Mills formed the rock band Donnell Hubbard,[8] whose music was later used in a few episodes of Sealab 2021 (notably the song "Fishin' Hole"). In the opening credits of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, graffiti can be seen that reads "Donnell Hubbard is a dead man".
Maiellaro also wrote the Squidbillies theme song, "Warrior Man". Mouse Fitzgerald, the protagonist from 12 oz. Mouse, can be seen playing metal guitar in several episodes, with Maiellaro providing the actual guitar riffs himself.[5] A caricature of Maiellaro (voiced by Maiellaro) depicted as a Chinese food delivery boy holding an electric guitar appeared in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Spacegate World". In the DVD special feature, "How To Score Big Writing For Television", he is shown with a red Stratocaster-type guitar, a Steinberger electric guitar, and a goldtop Gibson Les Paul. He has also been featured in Adult Swim promotional materials playing an EpiphoneEDS-1275.
Other work
Maiellaro directed the animated music video for Year Long Disaster's 2008 single "Leda Atomica",[9] and has performed live with the band in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 2012, Maiellaro wrote and released his first graphic novel entitled Knowbodys, which centers around a family whose seemingly mundane life isn't all it that seems because the parents have the power to police the supernatural world (i.e. werewolves and poltergeists). This is one of Maiellaro's few projects that uses a traditional, non-absurd structure of writing.[10]
In 2022, a new film from Maiellaro entitled Pastacolypse was reported to be in the works at Bento Box Entertainment and would stream exclusively on Tubi.[11] It was released on Tubi on May 22, 2023.[12]
