About
Benjamin Arthur
Illustrator, animator, director and author.
I’ve always loved stories and art. My parents would read to me, and I would be transported, lost in my own imagination. As I grew older, I made up my own bedtime stories for my younger siblings. I became completely absorbed in the worlds of comics and animation, and all I ever wanted to do was tell stories through art that comes to life.
In 2007, my animated short Once Upon a Time in the Woods was featured on YouTube and garnered over a million views. This connected me with Robert Krulwich and Radiolab, leading to almost a decade of films and dozens of illustrations for NPR. In 2012, I became a full-time artist and animator, and in 2017 I founded ArthurAnimation with Alexa Villaume. Since then, our small studio has grown. We’ve created Emmy Award–winning work for Netflix and films featured in international museums, and we’ve collaborated with clients like Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Chronicle Books, W. W. Norton, Dell and more. I’ve also lectured for the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and taught digital art and design for Stanford Continuing Studies.
The Treasure Collector is the picture book I’ve always wanted to make, a collaboration with my good friend and author David Zeltser. Together we’ve created a book that I think of as a modern-day fable, a story of cozy mischief and friendship between two unlikely animals. Like all good friendships, theirs will require empathy and understanding.
I hope parents will read The Treasure Collector to their children and together be transported on a shared journey into their own imaginations.
Recognition
Honors
- 2025 Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design, for Netflix's Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut
- 2014 National Academies Communication Award Keck Futures Initiative, for NPR's series on the human microbiome
- 2011 White House News Photographers Association Eyes of History award for multimedia innovation, for Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can't See
- The Israel Museum, Jerusalem A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? shown in a ten-month exhibition, and used by the BBC in an episode of QI with Stephen Fry
- Three regional ADDY Awards Gold for Youth Homes' Our Story, Gold for YWCA of Missoula's Megan's Story, and Silver for The Power of a Good Idea, for animation and illustration at Salt Studios
- President's Honor List Academy of Art University, San Francisco
“A unique, almost Seussian world of microbes.”
“This is good scicomm. Why? Well, for many reasons, good writing, good sound, good editing, but by far the most apparent, the reason most people will sit up and take note, is because of the strong visuals. This is illustrator Benjamin Arthur's third collaboration with NPR on science animations, and it shows what can happen when talented creatives get more time and more freedom to explore the weird and wonderful depths of their imaginations. How better to illustrate the complex and mysterious world we call the microbiome than by creating a unique, almost Seussian world of microbes?”
Kalliopi Monoyios, Good Microbes Make Good Pets, Scientific American, 2013
Made for
- Netflix
- NPR
- Stanford Graduate School of Business
- Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Cedars-Sinai
- Radiolab
- Freakonomics
- TED Radio Hour
- MTV
- W. W. Norton
- Chronicle Books
- The Mother Company
- State of California
- Dell
Work history
Selected work
Books and publishing
- The Treasure Collector2027 Picture book, co-written with David Zeltser and illustrated, Peachtree
- Ninja Baby2015 Animated book trailer, created and narrated, for Chronicle Books
- After the Fall2012 Book trailer for New Yorker cartoonist Victoria Roberts's novel, directed and animated, for W. W. Norton
- The Influencing Machine2011 Animated trailer from Brooke Gladstone's graphic history of the media, for W. W. Norton
Science films for NPR
- A Toy Story of Invention2017 Directed and animated, with Manu Prakash
- How Sporty Is Your Sport?2015 Directed and animated, with Meredith Rizzo
- The Invisible Universe of the Human Microbiome2013 Directed and animated, with Rob Stein. Keck Futures Initiative Communication Award; later adapted for Netflix's Hack Your Health
- A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight?2010 Directed and animated, with Robert Krulwich. Shown at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and on the BBC's QI
- Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can't See2010 Directed and animated, with Robert Krulwich. White House News Photographers Association award
Editorial illustration for NPR
- Dining Like Darwin: When Scientists Swallow Their Subjects2015 With Jessie Rack
- Pathogens on a Plane: How to Stay Healthy in Flight2014, 2018 With Michaeleen Doucleff
- Brain Cells 'Geotag' Memories to Cache What Happened, and Where2013 With Jon Hamilton
- Gut Bacteria Might Guide the Workings of Our Minds2013 With Rob Stein
- A Scientist's 20-Year Quest to Defeat Dengue Fever2012 With Joe Palca
- The Pirate Botanist Returns! and The Best College Prank of the 1790s2012 With Robert Krulwich
- Dissolve My Nobel Prize! Fast!, What's a Smoot?, Killer Storks Eat Human Babies (Perhaps) and more2011 With Robert Krulwich, including Tools Never Die, How Much Water Is There on Earth? and The Best Hike on Mars You'll Ever Take
- A Mouse Asks for Mercy and The Junkman and the Madonna2010 With Robert Krulwich
Film, television and stage
- Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut2024 Animation and VFX director, main title, for Netflix. 2025 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design
- TED Radio Hour, live2015 The opening animation for the live stage show
- Fruitvale Station2013 Storyboards, illustrations and animatics for Ryan Coogler's film
- Radiolab and Freakonomics, live Visuals for the shows' live stage performances
- Ruby's Studio Two shorts, Casey Caterpillar Feels Left Out and Siblings, for The Mother Company's Emmy Award-winning series
- Civilians An animated segment for the MTV series, with Left/Right
- Once Upon a Time in the Woods2006 Independent rotoscoped short, more than a million views on YouTube
Health and medicine
- Johns Hopkins Medicine A video series for Respecting the Circle of Life, a sexual and reproductive health curriculum culturally adapted for American Indian communities
- Trauma Transformed A series for medical providers on the experience of gender non-conforming people, part of California's ACEs Aware initiative
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Employee education on best practices for affirming gender identity
- ETR (Education, Training and Research) Videos and materials for HealthSmart, a skills-based health curriculum for middle and high schools
Teaching and education
- Stanford Continuing Studies2024–2026 Taught a course in digital art and design, three semesters
- Stanford Graduate School of Business Produced, directed and animated hundreds of class videos for dozens of online courses
- Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Lecturer
Nonprofits, government and industry
- The Science Awareness Project2026 Produced and directed the film that introduces the nonprofit and its mission
- State of California, Racial Equity Commission An animated film on the Racial Equity Framework in eight languages and ASL (in production)
- Iowa Department of Revenue Videos for the I-Pledge program, teaching retailers the state's laws on alcohol, tobacco, alternative nicotine and vapor products
- Dell An internal pitch film for a new product design
- Salt Studios Animation and illustration for broadcast and public-service campaigns, with three regional ADDY Awards
For programs and press
Bios to borrow
Short
Benjamin Arthur is an Emmy Award-winning animation director and illustrator. His clients have included Netflix, NPR, Radiolab and Freakonomics, and he has won a National Academies Communication Award and lectured for the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. He is an avid collector of vintage curiosities. The Treasure Collector, written with David Zeltser, is his first picture book.
Medium
Benjamin Arthur is an Emmy Award-winning animation director and illustrator based in Sacramento, California. Since his rotoscoped short Once Upon a Time in the Woods reached more than a million viewers on YouTube, he has directed animated science stories for NPR with Robert Krulwich and others, drawn dozens of editorial illustrations, and created the title animation for Netflix’s Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut, which won the 2025 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design. With his wife, Alexa Villaume, he runs the studio ArthurAnimation. He collects vintage curiosities and oddities. The Treasure Collector, written with David Zeltser and published by Peachtree in April 2027, is his first picture book.
Long
Benjamin Arthur is an Emmy Award-winning animation director, illustrator and author based in Sacramento, California.
He first found an audience in 2007, when his rotoscoped short Once Upon a Time in the Woods became an early YouTube hit with more than a million views. In 2009 he began working with Radiolab’s Robert Krulwich, which led to almost a decade of animated films and dozens of illustrations for NPR. A Mystery: Why Can’t We Walk Straight? was shown for ten months at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and used by the BBC on QI, Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can’t See was honored by the White House News Photographers Association, and his animation for NPR’s series on the human microbiome won a National Academies Communication Award.
In 2017 he and his wife, Alexa Villaume, founded the studio ArthurAnimation, whose clients include Netflix, NPR, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cedars-Sinai and the State of California. His title animation for Netflix’s Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut won the 2025 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design. He has also drawn storyboards for Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, made live stage visuals for Radiolab, Freakonomics and TED Radio Hour, lectured for the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and taught digital art and design for Stanford Continuing Studies.
Like Reginald, the raccoon at the heart of his first picture book, he can’t pass a thrift store or a pile by the side of the road. The Treasure Collector, written with David Zeltser, is published by Peachtree in April 2027.
Say hello
Write to me
For school visits, festivals and interviews about The Treasure Collector, for illustration and animation, or just to say hello.