Robert Benfer
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Robert Leon Benfer Jr. was born on December 18, 1987 in Hinesville,
Georgia, USA in the Fort Stewart army base when his father was serving
in the military. His mother, Janeese Schoelzel, and his dad, Robert
Benfer Sr., then had to move to Germany where his sister
Nikki Benfer (b. March 2nd, 1988) was born.
At age 2 his parents got divorced and Robert, his sister and his mother
moved to Kerrville, Texas where she met Robert's future stepfather,
Curtis Schoelzel. In 1994, Roberts family moved to Schertz, Texas,
where Robert would spend the rest of his childhood. Here, Robert's two
stepsisters were born, Jakki Schoelzel (b. November 1st, 1995) and Jill
Schoelzel (b. September 15th, 2000).
In 1995, he attended Schertz Elementary School where he met his best friend and now costar of some of Roberts projects, Sammie Penrod. At age 6, Robert became interested in film making. As a kid he would borrow his parents' video camera to make short films with his sister, Nikki. At age 15, Robert began to post short clay animation movies onto Newgrounds.com, going by the online name "Knox". Most of the clay animations consisted of unintelligent blue clay men who were basically just blobs with arms and legs.
Although the "blue blob with arms and legs" characters were initially created for practice, they quickly became his trademark style and grew hugely popular on Newgrounds. Newgrounds.com creator Tom Fulp became a huge fan of Robert as well and would often showcase Roberts movies on the front page of Newgrounds which played a big part in Roberts early success. By the time Robert was 16 he had already gained a huge fan base.
He posted 45 short films onto the Internet in 2003, and won 35 awards for them on Newgrounds.
In 2004 (age 16) Benfer created some of his first really successful clay animations such as Glass of water, Sniper Time!, and Rubber Ducky Of Death. His first attempt at turning his Internet success into a career was by releasing a DVD of his short films entitled "Knox in a Box". At the end of 2004, after the success of his first DVD, Robert started production on his first ever feature length film, Klay World: Off the Table (2005). Based off his Internet series. It was a huge success.
In 2010 Robert released his 2nd feature length film The Fracktaplots (2010).
In 1995, he attended Schertz Elementary School where he met his best friend and now costar of some of Roberts projects, Sammie Penrod. At age 6, Robert became interested in film making. As a kid he would borrow his parents' video camera to make short films with his sister, Nikki. At age 15, Robert began to post short clay animation movies onto Newgrounds.com, going by the online name "Knox". Most of the clay animations consisted of unintelligent blue clay men who were basically just blobs with arms and legs.
Although the "blue blob with arms and legs" characters were initially created for practice, they quickly became his trademark style and grew hugely popular on Newgrounds. Newgrounds.com creator Tom Fulp became a huge fan of Robert as well and would often showcase Roberts movies on the front page of Newgrounds which played a big part in Roberts early success. By the time Robert was 16 he had already gained a huge fan base.
He posted 45 short films onto the Internet in 2003, and won 35 awards for them on Newgrounds.
In 2004 (age 16) Benfer created some of his first really successful clay animations such as Glass of water, Sniper Time!, and Rubber Ducky Of Death. His first attempt at turning his Internet success into a career was by releasing a DVD of his short films entitled "Knox in a Box". At the end of 2004, after the success of his first DVD, Robert started production on his first ever feature length film, Klay World: Off the Table (2005). Based off his Internet series. It was a huge success.
In 2010 Robert released his 2nd feature length film The Fracktaplots (2010).
