Alex Hirsch

Alexander "Alex" Robert Hirsch (born June 18, 1985) is the creator and executive producer of the Disney XD Animated Series Gravity Falls. He voices the main characters Grunkle Stan and Soos, as well as recurring characters like Old Man McGucket, Bill Cipher, and the Gnomes. His twin sister is Ariel Hirsch.

He places many of his real-life experiences in the show, such as living in Piedmont and trick-or-treating with his sister as cats. He also based the series off the summers he spent camping with his great aunt. He and his sister wished they would go on the adventures that Mabel and Dipper do in the show. He based Mabel on his twin sister, Ariel Hirsch, Grunkle Stan off of his Grandpa Stan and based the entire show loosely on his childhood summers. He gave Mabel a pet pig because his sister had always wanted one when she was a kid.

Season 0 (pilot)

 * "Unaired pilot"

Roles in Gravity Falls

 * Stan Pines
 * Soos
 * Gnomes
 * Old Man McGucket
 * Macaw
 * Saunterblugget Hampterfuppinshire
 * Paper Jam Dipper
 * Quentin Trembley
 * Cackling skulls
 * Sev'ral Timez members
 * Bill Cipher
 * Various others

Other Work
Alex Hirsch was the creative consultant for Fish Hooks, which he developed for television alongside Maxwell Atoms, where he portrays Clamantha, her father, Fumble, one of the fish police and a Ferret. He was also a writer and a storyboard artist for The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He also provided the voice of Officer Concord the Juice Time Juice Box Flavor Cop in the "Terrifying Tri-State Trilogy of Terror" episode of Phineas and Ferb, which is also on Disney Channel.

Early life
Alex Hirsch was born and raised in Piedmont, California, and he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Los Angeles County, California, in 2007. He also liked to go to Oregon, and often did so. Shortly after graduating, he worked at the digital entertainment studio JibJab and was a writer/storyboard artist on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He also served as a creative consultant and helped develop the hit Disney Channel animated series, Fish Hooks, and voices the character Clamantha in the series. Hirsch chose Oregon as the setting for Gravity Falls after spending a summer there during college working for the animation studio Laika.

Trivia

 * In Spring 2007, he created a short film called Off the Wall, which was one of his student films at CalArts. Mike Moon, an animation executive at Disney eventually saw it. Impressed, he asked Alex to pitch the network a television series, which eventually lead to Gravity Falls.
 * He based Dipper off of himself.
 * Mabel is based off of his twin sister Ariel.
 * Hirsch has appeared a few times in the show as himself.
 * The bottom half of his face is visible among the photos in the opening theme song.
 * A caricature of Hirsch is seen in "Bottomless Pit!" riding a unicycle.
 * A photo of him is posted among "Suspicious Townsfolk" on Dipper's Author board in "Society of the Blind Eye." with the words: Who?
 * Alex's college roommate was the show's art director, Ian Worrel.
 * Alex guest voiced Officer Concord for a special Phineas and Ferb Halloween episode.
 * Alex has joked about the rumors that he is hiding occult symbols in the show on multiple occasions, because they are hidden in plain sight.
 * Alex Hirsch named one of the manotaurs after his taxidermy buffalo "Beardy" that he keeps in his office at Disney.
 * Alex prefers Nintendo over Sega, and his favorite Nintendo game is Kirby's Pinball Land.
 * He owns a full size adult taxidermy buffalo which he insists people sit on when they take tours.
 * The number 618 that appears throughout Gravity Falls is a reference to his birthday, June 18th (otherwise 6/18).