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Sam Liu is an American animation director, producer, storyboard artist, and character designer. He is one of the most prolific directors in the DC animated film library, having helmed or co-directed more than a dozen Warner Bros. Animation features since 2009. Earlier in his career, Liu served as a director and storyboard artist on Extreme Ghostbusters, marking one of his first directorial credits in television animation.
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Liu pursued fine art at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he contributed illustrations to the original Cyberpunk roleplaying game published by R. Talsorian Games.1 He subsequently enrolled at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, studying as an illustration major.1
Liu began his professional career in comics, penciling for Image Comics before moving into animation in 1996.1 He joined Sony Animation and worked on several television series in the late 1990s, including Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles and Godzilla: The Series, where he held directing credits.1 His first directorial opportunity in animation came in 1997 on Extreme Ghostbusters at Sony (see the Ghostbusters section below).2
After his time at Sony Animation, Liu worked as a character designer for Sony Computer Entertainment of America on PlayStation projects1 before returning to animation. By 2002, he had joined Warner Bros. Animation,2 where he directed and storyboarded episodes of The Batman (2004-2008), the Batman animated series produced for The CW Kids block. His work on The Batman earned him a Daytime Emmy Award in 2006.1
Liu went on to become one of the signature directors in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line, the direct-to-video superhero film series produced by Warner Bros. Animation. He also directed animated features for Marvel Entertainment during this period. Key directorial credits include:1
In television, Liu co-directed episodes of Green Lantern: The Animated Series (2011-2013) with Bruce Timm, and co-directed Beware the Batman with Glen Murakami.1 More recently, he directed episodes of Creature Commandos (2024), the adult-animated series set within James Gunn's DC Universe.3
Beyond directing, Liu contributed storyboard and production art work earlier in his career, including storyboarding on Dr. Strange (2007, Marvel) and Superman/Doomsday (2007).1
Liu joined Sony Animation in 1997 and worked on Extreme Ghostbusters, the continuation series that followed a new team of Ghostbusters led by Egon Spengler. This assignment gave Liu his first opportunity to direct in animation.2 He served as both director and storyboard artist on the series.
Director:
Storyboard Artist:
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
TV Insider, "Sam Liu," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.tvinsider.com/people/sam-liu/. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
IMDB, "Creature Commandos" (TV Series 2024), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26545355/. ↩
IMDB, "Extreme Ghostbusters: Seeds of Destruction" (TV Episode 1997), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0574537/. ↩
IMDB, "Extreme Ghostbusters: Eyes of a Dragon" (TV Episode 1997), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0574522/. ↩
