Larry Schwarz

Equal parts Walt Disney, Jim Henson, and Willy Wonka, yet entirely unique, Larry Schwarz continues to create a world of innovative and dynamic children’s entertainment properties.

Larry Schwarz is best known as the CEO of Rumpus, the multimedia children’s entertainment company he founded in 1995. Rumpus created animated and live action programming for the internet, television and home video and manufactured and sold a line of award winning toys all based on characters and ideas created by Schwarz. Rumpus operated kid’s entertainment and community websites Rumpus.com and Zeeks.com. Rumpus.com was the first website to receive the National Parenting Seal of Approval and was voted Best Kid’s Website by Netguide and Time Magazine. Zeeks.com is one of the most widely visited kid’s sites on the Internet. Schwarz grew Rumpus from a one person operation in his parent's living room to over fifty employees in the United States and England.

In 1995, Rumpus began manufacturing and selling a unique line of children’s toys, books and comic books created by Schwarz. Rumpus products were sold directly by the company and atnational chains including Toys "R" Us. Schwarz designed toys, including Monster in My Closet, Gus Gutz, Wake Me Willy and Harry Hairball, have won numerous awards for best toys of the year from Parents Magazine, Family Fun, Child, Good Housekeeping, Family Life, The National Parenting Center, The Parent’s Choice Foundation, Dr. Toy and many other children’s publications, media organizations and parenting groups. In 2000, Schwarz became the youngest person ever elected to the Board of Directors of the Toy Manufacturers of America.

Schwarz has created some of the most innovative web-based content, from interactive games to animated and live action series and films. In March 2000, Schwarz launched the first online animated movie. At 38 minutes, Herschel Hopper New York Rabbit was the longest piece of content created for the web and featured the voices of Jason Priestley, Brad Renfro, Brendan Sexton III and former New York Mayor Ed Koch. In November 2000, Schwarz premiered The Day I Saved America, a 50 minute movie, featuring five original songs and starring Amanda Bynes from Nickelodeon’s Amanda Show. Under Schwarz’s direction, Rumpus animators have been responsible for several other animation firsts, including the creation of The Monster in My Closet Blacklight Mega Movie and Space Puppies in 3D, marking the first time these effects were used in online animation. Rumpus has been recognized for its pioneering animation by many media organizations and industry groups, including Animation Magazine, which voted Schwarz as one of the 15 Top Guerilla Web Entrepreneurs.

Rumpus’ expertise in creating flash-based animation and online games has also served some of the top names in children’s entertainment. Rumpus has created games and online animated programming for Scholastic, Lego, Harvey and Sesame Workshop. In 2001, Rumpus began to take its online programming offline. Herschel Hopper and The Day I Saved America have premiered on In Demand, the nation’s largest television pay per view service and the Showtime Family Network. Rumpus entered the home video market by commencing the production of The Red Bison, an animated feature starring the voice of Malcom in the Middle’s Frankie Muniz. Currently, Schwarz has several original animated series in development for television including Kappa Mikey with Sunbow Entertainment and TV Loonland.

Prior to founding Rumpus, Schwarz was the founder and president of VIAM Communications, the publishers of the Vietnam Business Journal and Vietnam’s first countrywide Yellow Pages. Prior to that, Schwarz published H Magazine, a seasonal entertainment and lifestyle magazine for the Hamptons resort area of New York. Schwarz has lectured on marketing, product development and entrepreuneurship at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Oxford University, Eton and many other schools. He has been a frequent guest on business new shows on CNN, CNBC, Fox News and NPR.

A former child actor and stand-up comic, Larry Schwarz is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Larry Schwarz is currently the C.E.O. of Larry’s Lab, a creator, developer and producer of innovative entertainment programming for children and young adults.