Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (born October 26, 1973, in Kent, Connecticut) is a two-time Emmy-winning American comedian, animator, screenwriter, producer, actor, voice actor, and composer. MacFarlane is best known as the creator of the popular animated series Family Guy and American Dad!. He was the executive producer of the short-lived television series The Winner.

MacFarlane performs vocally as many of his cartoon characters, such as Peter Griffin on Family Guy as well as Stan Smith and Roger the Alien on American Dad!. As an actor, he makes guest appearances on various shows including Gilmore Girls and The War at Home. A science fiction fan, MacFarlane has appeared on Star Trek: Enterprise, and spoofs Star Wars and Star Trek in several of his cartoons. MacFarlane occasionally speaks at universities and colleges throughout the United States. He supports the Democratic Party and publicly sided with the writers' union in the recent Writers Guild of America strike.

Seth MacFarlane was born in the small New England town of Kent, Connecticut where he lived with his father (Ron), mother (Perry) and sister (Rachael). He attended and studied animation at the Rhode Island School of Design and after he graduated he was hired by Hanna-Barbera Productions (Now called Cartoon Network Studios) working as an animator and writer on the TV series Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken. He also worked for Walt Disney Animation as a writer on the TV series Jungle Cubs. He created Life of Larry, The (1995) which was originally supposed to be used as an in-between on Mad-TV. Unfortunately the deal fell through but a few months later executives at FOX called him into their offices and gave him $50,000 to create a pilot for what would eventually become "Family Guy" (1999). On September 11, 2001 he was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 after being a keynote speaker at his alma-mater in Rhode Island. Due to a mix-up by his travel agent he was told that his flight was scheduled to depart at 8:15am but it really departed at 7:45am and he had arrived at Boston Logan Airport a few minutes after boarding was stopped on his flight and he was told he would have to wait for the next flight. At 8:45am one hour after the departure of American Airlines Flight 11 it was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into One World Trade Center (North Tower) in New York City killing all on-board. He was able to contact his parents within 20 minutes of Flight 11 striking the first tower to tell them he was okay. He said that he thanked his travel agent for screwing up the departure time or he would have been on board.