Vanessa Coffey is an American film producer best known for her work on Rugrats, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Doug and Rocko's Modern Life. Coffey has won two Daytime Emmy Awards and a CableACE Award.[1]
Coffey's film career began at Marvel Animation working on television shows including Transformers, G.I. Joe, Muppet Babies and Defenders of the Earth.[2] Coffey later moved to Murakami-Wolf-Swenson where she worked on the development of the television show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.[2]
Coffey says that after leaving Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, she did not want to do animation anymore[3] because everything was either modeled after pre-existing comic strips or a vessel for selling related products.[2] Coffey decided that she wanted to bring back original animation[2] and called Debbie Beece at Nickelodeon.[3] Coffey was told that Nickelodeon could not afford animation at the time, but she could produce a special for them. She produced Nick's Thanksgiving Fest in 1988 as an independent contractor.[3] It was only the second time that the studio had done animation.[2] After the success of the special, Nickelodeon contracted with Coffey to develop Nicktoons[4] with original, creator-driven ideas.[2]
Coffey developed three ideas to fill the 90-minute time slot allocated to Nicktoons – Rugrats, The Ren & Stimpy Show and Doug.[2] All three shows were successful and are credited with beginning Nickelodeon's "golden age of cartoons".[2] Coffey calls the variety of the three shows "a balanced meal" for kids.[2] Between the pilots and series' production, Coffey was hired as Nickelodeon's Vice President of Animation.[4]
Of being able to create original programming for Nicktoons, Coffey says, "I was in the right place at the right time."[5] Arlene Klasky, co-creator of Rugrats, and Jim Jinkins, creator of Doug, credit Coffey for enabling them to get their shows off the ground and into the homes of millions around the world.[5]