Bryan Konietzko

American animation director

Bryan Konietzko is an American animator, writer, producer and director. He is best known, together with Michael Dante DiMartino, as the co creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

Konietzko has worked as a character designer at Film Roman for Family Guy and as assistant director for Mission Hill and King of the Hill. He was a storyboard artist and art director for the Nickelodeon animated series Invader Zim. Between 2001 and 2014, Konietzko, together with Michael Dante DiMartino, was mainly occupied with writing and producing the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel The Legend of Korra for Nickelodeon. Konietzko's and DiMartino's long standing creative partnership is collectively referred to as "Bryke" by fans, in reference to "shipping" naming conventions. As of 2015, Konietzko was working on writing and illustrating a sci fi graphic novel series, Threadworlds, that is to be published by First Second Books, but there is no release date. Konietzko is also active in photography and has a band, Ginormous, with which he has released several albums. These include Our Ancestors' Intense Love Affair and At Night, Under Artificial Light.

In September 2018, Netflix announced that Konietzko and DiMartino would serve as executive producers and showrunners for the live action series based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, which released in 2024. On August 12, 2020, Konietzko and DiMartino revealed on social media that they had both departed the show, due to creative differences with the Netflix team. In February 2021, Paramount Global (the parent company of Nickelodeon, then known as "ViacomCBS") announced its formation of Avatar Studios, a division of Nickelodeon centered on developing newer animated series and movies set in the same universe as Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Konietzko and DiMartino will jointly lead the studio as co chief creative officers reporting to Nickelodeon Animation Studio president, Ramsey Ann Naito. The first project will be an animated theatrical film which started production in late 2021.

Konietzko graduated from Roswell High School in Roswell, Georgia, a suburb north of Atlanta. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998. He resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife Lisa.