Cannabis Celebrity Profile: Seth MacFarlane

Seth MacFarlane, Stewie from Family Guy and the bear from Ted holding a bong

The life of Seth MacFarlane is interesting to say the least. But the reason we’re most interested in him is for his public advocacy of marijuana legalization. In fact, cannabis even gets a part in many of Seth MacFarlane’s animations. Let’s take a look into the life of this great writer, the shows he created and his love of cannabis.

Name: Seth MacFarlane

Nationality: American

Born: 26 October 1973, in Kent, Connecticut, USA

Seth MacFarlane smiling in front of a microphone

Biography

Seth MacFarlane is an American comedy writer and director, and a passionate cannabis advocate.

His parents, Ronald Milton MacFarlane (1946) and Ann Perry (née Sager; 1947–2010), were born in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He is of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, with roots in New England including descent from Mayflower passenger William Brewster.

By the time he graduated from his local high school, he had developed a passion for animation, making his own short films. He went on to study film, video and animation at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), gaining a Bachelor of Arts. He was rapidly head-hunted by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons on the basis of his thesis film The Life of Larry (which would become the basis of his hit TV show, Family Guy) – though more for the writing quality than his animation skills.

A scene from Family Guy

His experience at Hanna-Barbera and freelancing for Disney Television led to his pitching Family Guy to Fox TV in 1999: it has run on TV ever since.

His runaway hit led to film opportunities: in many of his works, he has satirically explored American family life and popular culture. He has often included positive aspects of cannabis use in his work and is a public advocate for legalisation.

Family

His sister is voice actress Rachael Ann MacFarlane (born 1976)

Random facts about Seth MacFarlane

Through a booking mistake, MacFarlane narrowly avoided being a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 on 11 September 2001.

MacFarlane has no issue bringing up cannabis whenever prompted. In an effort to normalize daily cannabis use, he has admitted to smoking cannabis with his family, and has mentioned the plant during a speech he gave in 2006 at Stanford University.

MacFarlane wasn’t just vocal about his support of cannabis – he used to be an activist, too. He served on the board of People for the American Way, a lobby group that fought for gay marriage, environmental sustainability, and cannabis legalization (among other things too).

A scene from Ted

Partial filmography

Television

(At Hanna-Barbera, as co-writer)

Dexter’s Laboratory (1997)

Cow and Chicken (1997)

I Am Weasel (1997)

Johnny Bravo (1997)

(At Fox, as writer-creator)

Family Guy (1999-present)

American Dad! (2005-present)

Film

Ted (2012)

Ted 2 (2015)

Seth MacFarlane’s ode to weed

Because all we need is a bag of weed

To make us wanna cheer!

And One, Two!

A Bag of Weed, A Bag of Weed

Oh, everything is better with A Bag of Weed

You can try and fight but we’re all agreed

Because everything is better with A Bag of Weed 

Song from the Family Guy episode ‘4/20 (so7e12)

Comments

5 thoughts on “Cannabis Celebrity Profile: Seth MacFarlane”

  1. His creative use of colorful language is what hooks me in to any show he has written. Despite what people say he’s a pure genius to me.

  2. I love and understand your sense of humour, I enjoy your creativity mind, Keep it up, Seth Macfarlane ?

  3. Seth Macfarlane was only funny in the first place because of the shock of his controversy. Now he just uses the same jokes over and over again, causing monotonous unfunniness. More information about him you can find at this article

  4. Seth is the funniest guy I ever known especially in Ted until now am still watching that movie.

    1. Seth Macfarlane was only funny in the first place because of the shock of his controversy. Now he just uses the same jokes over and over again, causing monotonous unfunniness. More information about him you can find at this article

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    Sensi Seeds

    The Sensi Seeds Editorial team has been built throughout our more than 30 years of existence. Our writers and editors include botanists, medical and legal experts as well as renown activists the world over including Lester Grinspoon, Micha Knodt, Robert Connell Clarke, Maurice Veldman, Sebastian Maríncolo, James Burton and Seshata.
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