Timos Stephanos Cosmatos (born August 1, 1967) is an American animator, writer, voice actor and director. He is best known for creating the TV series Sincerely, Cody (2002-2011), Cody & Mark (2011-2015) and Me and Helene (2014-2018), and for writing and directing the films Signal (2008) and The Miami Giant (2019).
Early life[]
Cosmatos was born on August 1, 1967 in Houston, Texas. He was the fourth and second-youngest child of a Greek immigrant couple. His father Georgios, a veteran of the Greek Civil War, worked as a security guard, and also served as a bodyguard for KC and the Sunshine Band. His mother, Ekaterini, was a restaurateur and homemaker. He grew up in the Arlington area of Jacksonville, Florida, where his mother ran a Greek restaurant with a family friend. His youngest brother, Stelios, is a journalist and political commentator.
After graduating from Terry Parker High School, Cosmatos enrolled in the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He also attended the University of South Florida (USF), where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
Career[]
After a brief stint working at Warner Bros. Animation, in 1995 Cosmatos moved to Paris, France to work for Saban International Paris. Cosmatos worked on several shows for SIP, including Space Strikers, Iznogoud, Princess Sissi and Diabolik, as a storyboard artist, character designer and production translator. While at SIP, he met Dave Hayman, another American working in France for the company. The two developed a pitch bible for a show called Opa!, pitching it to their superiors at Saban, but it was rejected on the basis that it "didn't meet company standards."
After leaving SIP, Cosmatos and Hayman retooled the pitch into a new concept, Sincerely, Cody, and pitched it to the RKO Network, who accepted the pitch. With the Canadian studio Magic World attached as co-producer, the series premiered in 2002 and ran until 2011 for a seven-season run.
Personal life[]
In 1998, Cosmatos married author Audrey Devold in Joshua Tree, California. They had two children together, one of which, Neil, is an actor and singer. In May 2009, Cosmatos and Devold filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences". In 2016, Cosmatos re-married to writer and voice actress Jane Stroud. As of 2021, the couple were living in Brunswick, Georgia.
Cosmatos was diagnosed with Bell's palsy in 2003 after developing a upper respiratory tract infection during a vacation in Papua New Guinea with his then-wife.
On April 8, 2015, Cosmatos' younger sister, Teresa, an officer with the Miami-Dade Police Department, was shot in the line of duty by her ex-boyfriend while on patrol in South Miami, Florida.