Biography: Al Kouzel was an American animator. Born in Manhattan, he started out at Terrytoons in 1957, working on animated shorts. During the 60s, he worked for a while at Studio Deitch in Prague, on Krazy Kat and Popeye. In 1967, he founded Ariel Productions with Eli Bauer and created animation for TV commercials and animated shorts for "Sesame Street". During the '80s, he was a director on a number of series including The Transformers, G.I. Joe, Jem, Muppet Babies and a number of "Berenstain Bears" TV movies.