Carl Jones (producer)

Lore & Background

He produced and directed Zombie Walk, a mixed-media film for rapper Desiigner, and produced animation for Akil the Fugitive Hunter on A&E. Jones wrote for The Jellies! and served as Executive Producer on Lazor Wulf. In 2022, he co-founded Martian Blueberry (sometimes spelled MartianBlueberry), an animation company, with his wife, Love Jones. The company's name was inspired by the song 'Strange Fruit,' written by Abel Meeropol and famously performed by Billie Holiday.

Reader's Guide

Carl Jones's career spans multiple roles in animation, from voice acting to executive production. His work on The Boondocks helped the series achieve historic recognition as the first Cartoon Network program to win a Peabody Award and receive an NAACP Image Award nomination for writing. As co-founder of Martian Blueberry in 2022, he established a new independent animation studio in Los Angeles. His contributions to Black Dynamite and other series demonstrate his versatility in both writing and producing. Jones's ongoing work with Bento Box Entertainment on Legends of Chamberlain Heights reflects his continued presence in the animation industry.

Did You Know?

• Carl Jones co-founded Martian Blueberry with his wife, Love Jones, in 2022.
• The Boondocks was nominated for a Peabody Award, but did not win.
• Jones produced and directed Zombie Walk, a mixed-media film for rapper Desiigner.
• The name Martian Blueberry was inspired by the song 'Strange Fruit,' written by Abel Meeropol and famously performed by Billie Holiday.

Career Trajectory & Studio Relationships

Carl Jones has built a career defined by long, evolving partnerships with major animation studios rather than a single employer. His relationship with Cartoon Network stretches back to 2004, though it was not continuous; he worked with the network periodically through 2015, stepped away for a stretch, and then resumed collaboration beginning in 2017. In between those Cartoon Network stints, he spent time at Titmouse Animation from 2009 to 2010, gaining experience at a studio known for its in-house production model. More recently, Jones has shifted his focus to Bento Box Entertainment, where he is currently involved with the project Legends of Chamberlain Heights. Beyond these flagship relationships, his writing credits extend to The Jellies!, and he served as Executive Producer on Lazor Wulf, demonstrating that his influence reaches across multiple properties and production houses. This pattern of returning to familiar partners while also branching into new collaborations suggests a producer who values creative continuity without sacrificing the opportunity to explore fresh creative territory.

Breakthrough Work & Industry Recognition

Two projects stand as the defining achievements of Carl Jones's career to date. On Black Dynamite, the television series, he wore multiple hats simultaneously—serving as Executive Producer, Head Writer, and Director—giving him an unusually comprehensive creative voice over the show's development and execution. His work on The Boondocks TV series, where he held the Co-Executive Producer title, earned the program a landmark distinction: it became the first Cartoon Network series ever to receive a Peabody Award. The same show also drew a nomination for the NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, a recognition that underscored the cultural significance of the writing team's work. These accolades placed Jones at the intersection of mainstream animation prestige and Black creative excellence, a space that few animation producers had occupied before. The combination of hands-on writing and directing on one show and high-level executive oversight on another reveals a practitioner comfortable operating at every level of the production hierarchy.

Range Beyond the Studio Floor

Although best known for his television work, Carl Jones has demonstrated a remarkable willingness to cross media boundaries. He is credited as a voice actor, screenwriter, animation producer, and studio executive, a breadth that is uncommon even among prolific animators. One of his more unconventional projects was Zombie Walk, a mixed-media film he both produced and directed for the rapper Desiigner, blending animation with music-video aesthetics in a way that departed sharply from traditional episodic television. He also produced animation for Akil the Fugitive Hunter, a series that aired on A&E, showing his ability to adapt his craft to a cable-network context quite different from Cartoon Network's. These varied engagements—spanning a music-driven short, a cable drama-adjacent series, and network comedy—paint a picture of a creator who resists being typecast into a single genre or format. His comfort in shifting between directing, producing, writing, and performing suggests an artist whose primary loyalty is to the story rather than to any particular medium or studio identity.

Martian Blueberry & Life Beyond the Studio

In 2022, Carl Jones and his wife, Love Jones (née Barnett), co-founded Martian Blueberry, a Los Angeles-based animation company that represents a significant personal and professional milestone. The venture marks a shift from working within established studio structures to building his own creative home, a step that carries both entrepreneurial risk and the freedom of full creative ownership. The company's name carries a deliberate artistic weight: it was inspired by Billie Holiday's iconic song "Strange Fruit," a choice that signals the couple's intention to embed social consciousness and historical memory into the studio's identity from its very inception. Jones's roots also inform his perspective; he was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a Southern background that likely shaped the cultural sensibility evident in his writing and producing work. The partnership with Love Jones—both as a life partner and a creative co-founder—suggests that Martian Blueberry is as much a shared personal vision as it is a business entity, blending family, art, and the legacy of American music history into a single creative enterprise.