Benjamin Arthur (animator)


Benjamin Timothy Arthur is an American animator and illustrator. He is known for the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut, and for science explainers produced with NPR correspondents, including A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight?, Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can't See, and the microbiome short The Invisible Universe of the Human Microbiome. He first drew attention with the rotoscoped short Once Upon a Time in the Woods.
WWW Official Site

Career

Arthur’s commissioned animation for NPR and collaborating public-radio outlets helped popularize research topics for broad audiences, including human navigation and high-altitude insect migration. His animation accompanied NPR health correspondent Rob Stein’s microbiome series, later recognized by the National Academies’ Keck Futures Initiative Communication Awards.
In 2024–25, Arthur served as Animation/VFX Director on Netflix’s Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut, whose main titles and graphic design received a Daytime Emmy Award.

Selected works

Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut — Animation/VFX Director ; Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design A Mystery: Why Can’t We Walk Straight? — animation for NPR explainer by Robert KrulwichLook Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can’t See — animation for NPR explainerThe Invisible Universe of the Human Microbiome — animation for NPR/Rob Stein seriesThe Influencing Machine — animated trailer for Brooke Gladstone & Josh Neufeld’s nonfiction bookOnce Upon a Time in the Woods — rotoscoped short film

Awards and honors

  • 2011: Third place, Multimedia Innovation — WHNPA “Eyes of History” Digital Storytelling
  • 2014: National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Communication Award — Film/Radio/TV category, to NPR/Rob Stein’s microbiome series featuring Arthur’s animation
  • 2025: Daytime Emmy Award — Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design for ''Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut''