text: Production Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Dexter's Laboratory, was born in Moscow, where his father, a dentist, served in the government of the Soviet Union. Although relatively wealthy and well-connected, his family feared racial persecution due to their Jewish heritage and moved to the United States when Tartakovsky was seven. Along with his older brother, Alex, Tartakovsky taught himself how to draw as a child by copying comic books.
  After transferring from Columbia College Chicago to the California Institute of the Arts in 1990 to study animation, Tartakovsky wrote, directed, animated, and produced two student short films, one of which was a precursor to Dexter's Laboratory's television pilot, "Changes". Described as a two-and-a-half-minute pencil test, this short film was included in a university screening for the producers of Batman: The Animated Series, who were impressed and hired Tartakovsky.
  Later on, Tartakovsky joined the production team of 2 Stupid Dogs. His co-workers on that series, Craig McCracken, Rob Renzetti, Paul Rudish, and Lou Romano, had been classmates of his at Cal Arts and went on to collaborate with him on Dexter's Laboratory. Tartakovsky's last job before developing Dexter's Laboratory into a television series was to serve as a sheet timer on The Critic. During his time on that series, Tartakovsky received a phone call from Larry Huber, who had been a producer on 2 Stupid Dogs. Huber had shown Tartakovsky's unfinished student film to a then-nascent Cartoon Network and wanted Tartakovsky to develop the concept into a seven-minute storyboard.