ABOUT ME

Primarily a live-action editor, Zimmerman’s ascent in the world of animation dovetailed with the emergence of an upstart community of Atlanta-based creators and disruptors. After an early-2000s stint at the Georgia-based Radical Axis Animation Studio, he spent several years as an Editor and Producer with Turner/Adult Swim, where he worked on such groundbreaking series as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies, 12 Ounce Mouse, and Perfect Hair Forever. On the strength of that work, he embarked on a seventy-episode stint on Archer, taking over editing duties from series creator Adam Reed and putting his own unique stamp on fan-favorite episodes such as “Arrival/Departure,” “Vision Quest,” “The Kanes,” and “Deadly Velvet.” Since that time, he has expanded beyond his Atlanta home-base to work with creative entities headquartered in New York and Los Angeles. The rollout of Blue Eye Samurai caps a three-year stint with Netflix.

It may be tempting to view Zimmerman’s earlier musical life as an unrelated, walled-off precursor to his current work. But the music and editing are two channels of the same river, moving in the same direction. As with his music, the projects Zimmerman has worked on started from a foundation of playful, quick-witted surrealism (Adult Swim, Archer), before moving into a harder, leaner sensibility (Hit-Monkey), to finally open into a mature, wide-as-the-universe reflectiveness (Blue Eye Samurai). Every indication points to still wider vistas, and further creative integration, ahead.

Written by Robert Dean Lurie - January 2024