Bray Productions was the dominant animation studio based in the United States in the years before World War I.

The studio was founded in December 1914 by J. R. Bray, perhaps the first studio entirely devoted to series animation at that time. Its first series was Bray's Heeza Liar, but from the beginning the studio brought in outsiders to direct promising new series. Carl Anderson, later known for the comic strip Henry, directed The Police Dog from the beginning of the company. The year 1915 brought Earl Hurd and Paul Terry; the former became J. R. Bray's business partner and directed Bobby Bumps, the latter was employed under duress and directed Farmer Al Falfa. The Fleischer brothers joined in 1916. In 1919, the rival International Film Service studio folded and owner William Randolph Hearst licensed Bray to continue the IFS series, which included Jerry on the Job films adapted from Walter Hoban's comic strip. Many staff members of the former studio transferred to Bray, and most of the new cartoons were directed by the same man who directed them for IFS, Gregory La Cava.

Bray (Irish: Bré, formerly Brí Chualann) is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland (excluding the five cities) as of the 2006 census. It is situated about 20 km (12 mi) south of Dublin on the east coast.

The town is the location of some industry, is home for many who commute to Dublin by car or rail, is a shopping town for the surrounding area and still attracts tourists particularly from Dublin at weekends. The town straddles the Dublin-Wicklow border, with a portion of the northern suburbs situated in County Dublin. Bray is home to Ireland's only dedicated film studios, Ardmore Studios where films such as Excalibur, Braveheart, and Breakfast on Pluto have been shot.

Jesse McCartney (born April 9, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and voice actor. McCartney achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama All My Children as JR Chandler. He later joined boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a solo musical career. Additionally, McCartney has appeared on shows such as Summerland and Greek. McCartney also is known for lending his voice as Theodore in Alvin and the Chipmunks and its sequels, as well as voicing the characters Roxas and Ventus in the video games series Kingdom Hearts developed by Square Enix.

McCartney was born on April 9th in Westchester, New York, the son of Ginger (née Sarber) and Scott McCartney. He began performing in local community musicals at the age of seven, before joining the national tour of The King and I at age ten along with Phil of the Future star Ricky Ullman. Here he played the character of Louis. In 1998, he sang with the group Sugar Beats and can be heard on their 1998, 1999, and 2000 CD releases.

Stephen Bray is an American songwriter, drummer, and record producer from Detroit. Bray is best known for his collaboration with Madonna.

Bray began studying music through private instruction in Detroit, and continued his education at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Bray owns and operates Saturn Sound recording studios and the Soultone Records record label. He is married to movie producer Stephanie Allain, who produced Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan.

Bray met Madonna during her pre-stardom when she attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for dance. He moved to New York after receiving a call from Madonna years later, who at that time, was a member of the band The Breakfast Club in New York City. Madonna wanted to form a new band and invited Bray to play the drums. Together they formed the band Emmy and the Emmys.

Madonna obtained her recording contract with Gotham Management, with Camille Barbone. The music she was producing with them was more rock oriented and Madonna had her eyes set on dance music. She and Stephen Bray continued working on a parallel project, more club oriented. After being signed to Sire Records, Madonna continued collaborating with Bray.

Earl Hurd (September 14, 1880 – September 28, 1940) was a pioneering American animator and film director. He is noted for creating and producing the silent Bobby Bumps animated short subject series for early animation producer J.R. Bray's Bray Productions. Hurd and Bray are jointly responsible for developing the processes involved in cel animation, and were granted patents for their processes in 1914.

Hurd, a native of Kansas, later worked for Paul Terry's Terrytoons studio before starting his own Earl Hurd Productions studio in 1923.

Hurd was also a comic strip artist, illustrating the strips Trials of Elder Mouse (1911–1915), Brick Bodkin's Pa (1912) and Susie Sunshine (1927–1929). He worked later at the Ub Iwerks studio and the Walt Disney studio as a storyboard artist. Animation historian Giannalberto Bendazzi has called Hurd "probably the best American animator of his time" after Bray and said of his films that they "display an uncommon visual inventiveness, gentle humour and attention to drawing and scenography".