Stella McDonnell

Stella Ashley McDonnell-Curcwald (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 Face Paint 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 advices 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

 * Titans trilogy - writer, storyboard artist, co-director and executive producer (2016-2020)
 * 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)
 * The Multiple Mystic Woods - writer and storyboard artist (2019)
 * 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 (2000-2004)
 * 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 Chronicles - 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)
 * Good Ol' Magix! - creative consultant (2020-present)

Video games

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

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)

Discography

 * Ryan and Stella: Almost Cancelled - several voices (2008)
 * Ryan and Stella: Almost Cancelled - several voices (2008)

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.

Stella has been a longtime supporter of the NFL team New England Patriots, the NBA team Boston Celtics and the MLB team Boston Red Sox.

She is a supporter of the Democratic Party and has endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Bernie Sanders in 2016.

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.

Controversies
Despite her positive reception, she did receive a LOT of controversy for her inappropriate drawings and adult fanfics on Collin the Speedy Boy, The Dinosaur Princess, Howler, etc, and they ended up getting reaction from the other WBIE creators themselves. For example, Maria and Lawrence weren't happy and talked to her about it, since they found them and other artists' work disturbing, and Daniel claimed that what she did was unnecessary. However, out of all of the WBIE creators, Oscar's reaction was the worst. He was so pissed that it almost caused her friendship with Oscar Hamilton to completely break.

The fans, however, supported Stella, claiming she should do whatever she wants to do and others shouldn't just get pissed.

Later on, she and her husband Ryan Curcwald revealed that those weren't intended to be published online, but rather "her little secret", as those were leaked across the web by an anonymous source, a fact that almost ruined her career. They also specified that those characters are portrayed as over 18, since she considers pedophilia as "a hideous crime".

Additionally, she was almost fired from Warner Bros. But in awake of Oscar's promise, she reconciled with Oscar and kept the job. Stella learned the kinda-hard way that if she does adult material, then there would be risks.

After reconciling with Oscar, she published a long statement on her Facebook account, stating:

''Hello, friends, family and fans, In the last weeks, I was shocked by discovering that some of my adult art and fanfiction, with some of them being erotic and the others being rather pornographic, were leaked online by an anonymous source, threatening my reputation and my position in the world of entertainment. The worst part of it was seeing some of my fellow colleagues turning against me and giving rather nasty criticism towards me, especially my longtime friend Oscar Hamilton, who helped me to enter the video game business. And I kinda find that part stupid, because I mean, ruining friendships because you have a fetish? Come on! There's worse stuff than that, trust me.''

''Despite that, my husband still supported me and helped me throughout this phase. I almost resorted to alcoholism to cope, resulting in that infamous YouTube video I published some time ago. That was an embarrassing part of my career, fearing that my contract with Warner Bros., as well as the one I have with CBS Corp. and Paramount in relation to Diary of a Psychopath, would be doomed.''

''As a human being, I'm not safe from temptation and I'm rather tempted as I did that kind of stuff to pass time and only for fun. It was never my intention to publish them online. If there's someone to blame in all of this mumbo-jumbo, that should be the currently unknown person who published them.''

''I recently talked with both companies about it and they decided to give me a second chance, as they understood that it was a rather innocent TBD. I also talked with Oscar, who is now battling cancer, and he accepted my apology in exchange of promising that I wouldn't draw or write anything with his characters that involves them in rather explicit situations. That will not stop me from drawing or writing about them, but I'll keep it at least G or PG from now on. In case of going R, it will be mostly for gore and strong language. To celebrate our reinstated friendship, I've drawn a rather heartwarming drawing of Collin and Charlotte hugging each other. I'm not sure if he's gonna die, but if he does, I don't want him to pass away with a broken heart.''

''As for the other creators like Daniel, Maria, Lawrence, Seth, George and Diane, we recently attended group therapy in order to talk about it and exchange our opinions. Even if they were disappointed with me, they understood my point of view and were able to keep their friendship with me as long I don't do that again.''

''Summarizing it, I'm not a bad person. I'm just like anyone else. What I've done related to it was rather an innocent but stupid mistake and I promise I'll keep this shelved for the rest of my professional life. I'm far from being like Chris Savino or John Kricfalusi. Unlike me, they had reasons for being fired from Nickelodeon and other creators, fans and non-fans constantly bashing them. I'm not talking that much about the Butch Hartman controversy, since it happened after he left Nick and I'm still divided about it.''

''I want to apologize everyone who was rather angry or disappointed with me due to it and thank the ones who stood by me, even with all of this going on. I hope you apologize me the same way I'll apologize you, since I want to continue in this world and I'm afraid of what could happen if my characters were taken away from me.''

Best regards, Stella Ashley McDonnell-Curcwald.

Despite that, she still publishes fanfics and fanart for other franchises online, even if no longer adult-themed, opting for doing mainly ones with darker themes when aiming for a mature audience. And she kinda still does adult art for fun, but hand draws it instead of on her computer and avoids to publish it online, limiting to her own works.

Later, the leaker of the porn is revealed to be an old friend of hers and Ryan's who had a crush on Ryan wanting to publish the art so Ryan could break up with her. As a result, the couple sued her for nearly two million dollars.

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 is close friends with Daniel Wright, Oscar Hamilton, Madison McDougal-Hamilton, Tarōzaemon Fujiyama, Seth Carter, Diane Schmidt, Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCracken, Lauren Faust,, Maxwell Atoms, Dan Povenmire and.
 * Her friendship with Oscar was almost completely shattered when he discovered she has done some CTSB adult art fics.
 * 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.
 * Following the adult fanfiction/art controversy, she discontinued the use of the first one.
 * 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.