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Benjamin Arthur (animator)

Benjamin Timothy Arthur (born April 26, 1982) is an American animator and illustrator. He is known for the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut (2024), and for science explainers produced with NPR correspondents, including A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? (2010), Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can't See (2010), and the microbiome short The Invisible Universe of the Human Microbiome (2014). He first drew attention with the rotoscoped short Once Upon a Time in the Woods (2006).

Career

Arthur's commissioned animation for NPR and collaborating public-radio outlets helped popularize research topics for broad audiences, including human navigation and high-altitude insect migration. His animation accompanied NPR health correspondent Rob Stein's microbiome series, later recognized by the National Academies' Keck Futures Initiative Communication Awards.

In 2024–25, Arthur served as Animation/VFX Director on Netflix’s Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut (Tremolo Productions/Spillt), whose main titles and graphic design received a Daytime Emmy Award.

Selected works

  • Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut (2024) — Animation/VFX Director (main titles); Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design (2025)
  • A Mystery: Why Can’t We Walk Straight? (2010) — animation for NPR explainer by Robert Krulwich
  • Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can’t See (2010) — animation for NPR explainer
  • The Invisible Universe of the Human Microbiome (2014) — animation for NPR/Rob Stein series
  • The Influencing Machine (2011) — animated trailer for Brooke Gladstone & Josh Neufeld’s nonfiction book
  • Once Upon a Time in the Woods (2006) — rotoscoped short film

Awards and honors

  • 2011: Third place, Multimedia Innovation — WHNPA “Eyes of History” Digital Storytelling (with NPR team)
  • 2014: National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Communication Award — Film/Radio/TV category, to NPR/Rob Stein’s microbiome series featuring Arthur’s animation
  • 2025: Daytime Emmy Award — Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design for Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut (Animation/VFX Director)

References

External links