Stella McDonnell

Stella Ashley McDonnell (born January 7th, 1973 in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory) is an Australian-American animator, writer, producer, director, author, video game developer and voice actress, being known for creating the Good Ol' Magic video game series, the Diary of a Psychopath book series and Urban Legend Private Eyes.

In addition to it, her credits also include the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies franchise, The Powerpuff Girls, Hanna-Barbera, DC Comics, Collin the Speedy Boy, Mark: Time Janitor, The Mystic Woods and numerous others.

Early life
Stella was born on January 7th, 1973 at the Calvary John James Hospital in Canberra to Mark and Susanne McDonnell. Her father worked as a doctor while her mother was a teacher.

Under construction...

Early career
In 1998, Stella was hired by Cartoon Network to work in some projects by invitation of Craig McCracken, who already saw some of her drawing and writing skills, being rather amazing and TBD.

Good Ol' Magic
In 2001, Stella began developing her first created project under the working title of Witch Legacy, being inspired by mythology and set in a Magipunk world. For further development, she turned to fellow creator Craig McCracken, who she worked with as a writer on The Powerpuff Girls, and asked for advice. Craig suggested that her project should be a "cliché breaker" and should be adapted into modern times. In addition, he suggested that she should try an audition with The Powerpuff Girls cast members Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, Elizabeth Daily and Jennifer Hale for the main role. Craig's longtime partner and friend Genndy Tartakovsky also provided some creative input by advising her to not be afraid to imagine and explore darker themes and even death, while retaining its family-friendly focus.

Stella followed those pieces of advice and pitched its final draft to Warner Bros. on December 23rd, 2003, originally intending to be made as an animated television series. However, the studio's executives believed it that her project would be more profitable if it was made as a video game instead, similar to Collin the Speedy Boy. She was initially unsure about their condition, but after consulting her husband, who was developing Project Mark by that time, she accepted the executives' offer and started its development under the definitive name of Good Ol' Magic.

Film

 * The Mafia Queens - writer, director and executive producer (2017)
 * Professor Glory's Amazing Time Traveling Hat - writer, storyboard artist, co-director and executive producer (2017)
 * Good Ol' Magic - writer, creative consultant and executive producer (2020)
 * Diary of a Psychopath - writer, creative consultant, executive producer and cameo (2020)

Television

 * The Powerpuff Girls - writer, storyboard artist and director (1998-200?)
 * Tales from the Mystic Woods - creator, developer, writer, storyboard artist, director and executive producer (2001-2006)
 * What's New, Scooby-Doo? - writer, storyboard artist and voice of Chelsea Wrow (2002-2006)
 * Teen Titans - writer and storyboard artist (2003-2006)
 * Collin the Speedy Boy: Full Speed - writer and storyboard artist (2003-2007)
 * Good Ol' Magic - creator, developer, writer, storyboard artist, director and executive producer (2009-2013)
 * Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated - writer, storyboard artist and director (2010-2013)
 * The Looney Tunes Show - writer, storyboard artist and director (2011-2015)
 * Legacy of the Mystic Woods - creator, developer, writer, storyboard artist, director and executive producer (2017-present)
 * The Chronicles of Collin the Speedy Boy - writer, storyboard artist and director (2018-present)
 * Green Lantern Corps. - creator, developer, writer, storyboard artist, director and executive producer (2018-present)
 * Urban Legend Private Eyes - co-creator, co-developer, writer, storyboard artist, director and executive producer (2019-present)
 * Sajoedri, USA - voice of herself (2019)

Video games

 * Good Ol' Magic series - creator, developer, writer, storyboard artist and director (2006-present)
 * Mark: Time Janitor series - writer, storyboard artist and director (2006-present)
 * Miranda of the Mystic Woods - writer, storyboard artist and co-director (2018)

Others

 * The Painting - writer, storyboard artist and director (1995)
 * [that LGBT short] - writer, storyboard artist, director and narrator (20??)

Books

 * Diary of a Psychopath series (, 2009-2018)

Comic books

 * The Legend of the Mystic Woods - writer and artwork artist (2001-present)
 * Good Ol' Magic - writer and artwork artist (2010-present)

Personal life
She is currently married to Mark: Time Janitor creator Ryan Curcwald since [early] 1996, previously dating him from TBD 1994 until they got engaged, as they currently have two children: Matthew (born in 2002) and Lucy (born in 2003). She and her family currently reside in Boston, Massachusetts.

Although raised as a Protestant, she identifies herself as a "non-confessional Christian", criticizing most organized religions for promoting intolerance and TBD.

She is a supporter of the Democratic Party and has endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Bernie Sanders and then Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

She is an advocate for LGBT+ rights and often speaks at rallies supporting the influence they gave to develop Charlotte's sexuality, even doing a charity short film featuring some of her favorite strong female creations.

Fanfiction
See Stella McDonnell/Fanfiction.

Tropes
See Stella McDonnell/Tropes.

Trivia

 * Despite keeping her maiden name, she is occasionally referred to as Stella McDonnell-Curcwald or Stella Curcwald.
 * She and Ryan are often nicknamed "the odd couple" due to their different heritage, their video game series' different tone and their writing style as Stella usually writes dramatic/dark comedies and Ryan prefers to write extremely comedic stories, although both also write raunchy works.
 * Most of her projects have been exclusively made for Warner Bros., save for Diary of a Psychopath, whose book series was published by Simon & Schuster and its film adaption is being produced by Paramount Pictures, as well as The Mafia Queens and Professor Glory's Amazing Time Traveling Hat, also produced by Paramount.
 * She is revealed to be fond of fanfiction and she even wrote some related to her works and some other franchises as well, some of them under the pseudonym Mark Rodriguez and others under her real name.
 * She is the first WBIE creator to be extremely active online as she has a DeviantArt account under the name MagGirl23, a YouTube channel under her actual name and a TikTok account under the name TBD, besides her accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (as MagixStella).
 * Her favorite food is meat pie and her favorite drink is Mountain Dew.
 * Stella admits she used to smoke weed when she was in her early 20s and she still occasionally does so.