Creator Cameo



""Am I in an M. Night Shyamalan movie? Does M-Dog have a cameo as the prison warden who just happens to be Indian?""

- Stan Smith, American Dad!

One popular form of The Cameo is to have a franchise's creator, or a film's director or producer, appear in the franchise itself.

Similar to Author Avatar, but an Author Avatar is a creator appearing as more or less himself/herself, as opposed to a cameo as someone else. Many comics will have their creators drawn in as background characters, although they rarely have dialogue. In video games, very likely to appear in any Developer's Room.

May lead to Death by Cameo, or be expanded into Descended Creator.

Anime and Manga

 * In the film Paprika, director Satoshi Kon and original author Yasutaka Tsutsui provide the voices for the spectral bartenders at Paprika's bar. In one cast interview actor Tōru Furuya revealed that even he didn't know this until he looked at the back of the film's bill at the premiere.
 * Ken Akamatsu appears to help out a couple of the residents of the Hinata Inn in the Love Hina Christmas Special.
 * Motoko and Kitsune hijacked his boat in the New Year's special.
 * He is always overtly called by his name in these situations, though... likely because no one would be able to tell who he was since he is drawn pretty much identically to Keitaro (to the surprise of no one).
 * Yoshiyuki Tomino appears in Space Runaway Ideon.
 * A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example: In episode 13 of Fullmetal Alchemist, Roy and Ed are having an alchemy duel and Roy sends one of his flame attacks into the crowd, causing them to fly into the air. One of the soldiers flies past the screen in such a way that his face takes up most of the screen at one point, and looks suspiciously Japanese, considering Ed's country is apparently supposed to be European of sorts. If you compare the man to a picture of the director of the anime, you'll see they're one and the same.
 * The bovine self-caricature of original creator Hiromu Arakawa makes stealth appearances in several episodes as well, including the scene in which Winry is yelling at a hospitalized Ed to drink his milk, and again much later on when Sheska is describing her UFO-related conspiracy theories to Winry.
 * Director Kenji Kamiyama appears briefly in one scene of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - he's driving a car in some security feed footage pulled up by Section 9 while they try to track down Hideo Kuze.
 * And his name is called in the airport during the final Eden of the East film.
 * In a One Piece movie short based on a soccer competition, the author of the manga, going by his nickname Odachii, makes an appearance as the "world's best soccer player." His kick is the only shot the goalie could catch and block. His team was not happy.
 * Creator Masashi Kishimoto appears on a billboard in the third chapter of Naruto.
 * Stan Lee is seen quite a lot in Heroman.
 * And in Karakuridouji Ultimo. In fact, the Stan Lee cameo (Dunstan) kicked off the plot by creating the mechanical boys.
 * In the Black Jack story "Legs of an Ant", Osamu Tezuka draws himself as a passer-by warning Mitsuo about a forest fire on the road ahead. Amusingly, he has "Why am I here anyway?" written on the back of his shirt.
 * Osamu Tezuka does this a lot in his works. Another case has him appear as a museum tourist in Kimba the White Lion.
 * He makes a few other appearances as well, such as the doctor in "Tenacity" who helps cancer-ridden medical student Yamanobe to treat another cancer patient before he dies.
 * Akira Toriyama (as the little gas-mask wearing robot) makes a cameo during Dragon Ball's last filler arc. He's right there in the audience watching the tournament on the Grand Kai's planet.
 * Shinichi "Nabeshin" Watanabe has made this his signature, most prominently in Excel Saga. ES gets Bonus Points for also heavily featuring Koshi Rikdo, the creator of the original comic, and many of the episode openings revolve around the two butting heads about what direction the story should go.
 * Hiroaki Samura mangaka appears in the anime version of Blade of the Immortal as a pinewheel salesman.
 * Fujiki Shun also appears on several occasions in his manga Hajimete no Aku.

Comic Books

 * Herge, the author of Tintin, was quite fond of making cameos in his own comics, and later the cartoon series. Full list here.
 * He shows up in a very heartwarming cameo in the very beginning of the Spielberg/Jackson film, as well. As the film opens, Tintin is in a flea market getting a caricature of his face drawn (in the style of the comic, naturally), and when we get a glimpse of the artist, it's Herge! He remarks that Tintin's face is very familiar, and wonders if he's drawn him before.
 * Stan Lee had cameos in Marvel Comics from the beginning; he and Jack Kirby were denied access to Sue and Reed's wedding. One more memorable (and more recent cameo) casts him as the priest who marries James Hudson and Heather McNeil (Guardian and Vindicator of Alpha Flight.)
 * Grant Morrison has a door in the 4th wall. He even appears in comics that he didn't write (Tales of the Unexpected #7 and Suicide Squad #58).
 * Blue Beetle creators Len Wein and Paris Cullins appear in the fourth issue of Ted Kord's first DC solo series.
 * Cary Bates appears in The Flash #228.
 * Wikipedia has a whole page for this.
 * Artist Kurt Schaffenberger drew himself into many stories he illustrated. (Look for a tall, thin, dark haired man with a mustache and wearing glasses.)
 * The co-creators of Atomic Robo, writer Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener, appear in Atomic Robo and the Shadow From Beyond Time #5 as Louis and Martin, respectively, the two bumbling Action Scientists who almost accidentally end the universe.
 * In Dirty Pair: Fatal but not Serious, a picture of author/illustrator Adam Warren appears on the label of "Adam's Cranberry Lambic" beer.
 * Creator Fred Perry of Gold Digger often loves doing these in his comics. He usually the bald black person meandering around in the background or doing news reports.
 * Albert Uderzo frequently drew himself and Rene Goscinny into Asterix as background characters. In Asterix And The Black Gold, the second book after Goscinny's death, Uderzo gives him a greater role as the Gauls' Judean ally Saul ben Ephishul.
 * Incredible Hulk writer Peter David cameos as the priest who officiates the wedding of the Hulk's friend Rick Jones.
 * In an issue of Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem is accosted in a bar by a man who wants his son mentioned in Spider's column. He bears a striking physical resemblance to the comic's writer, Warren Ellis, while the man accompanying him looks just its artist, Darick Robertson.
 * In The Batman Adventures, the comic book adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series, the Terrible Trio of the Perfessor, the Mastermind, and Mr Nice are based on the then DC Comics group editors: Denny O'Neil, Mike Carlin, and Archie Goodwin.

Fan Works

 * AsheRhyder the creator of the fancomic Roommates 2007 got magic sneezed into it. She/he fled immediately fearing the characters wrath.

Film
"Logan: "Hey Doc!" Doc: "Ah, he arrives... Megan! Hold the door!""
 * Pretty much any TV show or movie based on a comic book by Stan Lee made before his death will have the man making an appearance. He's somewhere in pretty much every production based on a Marvel property, including as a voice actor in animated series. His appearances in Marvel movies include (but are not limited to):
 * X-Men 1 (Hot dog vendor)
 * Spider-Man (a guy at the fair who pulls a girl away from falling debris)
 * Daredevil (a guy at the crosswalk)
 * Hulk (a security guard)
 * Spider-Man 2 (dodging debris from the fight overhead)
 * Fantastic Four (as Willie Lumpkin)
 * Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer (credited as playing himself; as an In-Joke, he is a guest denied entry to Sue and Reed's wedding)
 * X-Men: The Last Stand (guy with a hose in the Jean Grey flashback)
 * Spider-Man 3 (guy pointing up in Times Square; he even talks to Peter Parker!)
 * Iron Man (the guy at the party that Tony Stark mistakes for Hugh Hefner, also credited as "himself")
 * Iron Man 2 (a man mistaken for Larry King.)
 * The Incredible Hulk (guy who drank from the bottle near the beginning).
 * Thor (truck driver, credited as Stan the Man)
 * Captain America: The First Avenger (general at Captain America's medal ceremony)
 * The Avengers
 * In Captain Marvel he also appeared as himself, rehearsing his cameo in Mallrats.
 * He does not have a cameo in either X Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: First Class. He that quipped for the latter that it was to encourage the movie-goers to buy a second ticket by making them believe they had missed him the first time around.
 * Stan has three separate appearances in The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride at Universal Studios Orlando.
 * Speaking of Marvel films, Sam Raimi has a couple of cameos in the Spider-Man movies; as the outtakes from the second film point out, he plays the student whose backpack smacks Peter in the head during a Montage.
 * Christopher Young, who scored Spider-Man 3, can be seen as the pianist next to Kirsten Dunst in the rehearsal scene.
 * Also from the Marvel film franchise, a scriptwriter cameo: David Hayter, one of the scriptwriters for the first two X-Men movies, appears in the first one as a security guard who Sabretooth attacks at the Statue of Liberty.
 * Still on the Marvel theme - but in My Real Daddy mode: Chris Claremont appears in X-Men: The Last Stand (partially inspired by his work) and JMS and Walt Simonson are in Thor.
 * Quentin Tarantino also has minor walk-ons in his own films, sometimes more. He wrote out his own part in Kill Bill to give the role to an actor he respected and admired. His hands made a cameo in Inglourious Basterds, replacing Christopher Waltz's hands during the shots not showing his face as Landa is
 * The author of the novel Holes, Louis Sachar, makes a cameo in the film version as Mr. Collingwood, a bald man who Sam the onion picker gives a supposed "Hair tonic".
 * Hideaki Anno makes an appearance in the 2004 live-action movie of Cutey Honey, as does manga author Go Nagai.
 * Alfred Hitchcock has a cameo in almost every film he ever directed. In most cases, he carries an item, like musical instruments, a conductor's baton, or dogs on a leash, to symbolize his control of the film. He likened these cameos to an artist adding their signature to a painting. Hitchcock eventually started making these cameos near the beginning of the film so audiences wouldn't be distracted by looking for him. He appears as a face in a newspaper in Lifeboat, since there was no other way to work it in. In Rope his famous silhouette self-portrait appears as a neon sign outside the window after the sun sets.
 * Lampshaded in the Murder, She Wrote episode "Incident at Lot 7". Jessica Fletcher visits Hollywood to speak with a movie producer who's adapting one of her books to the screen, and ends up investigating a murder that took place on the Universal backlot, specifically the Bates Motel set from Psycho. At the beginning of the episode, a portly balding man, vaguely resembling Hitchcock, is seen crossing the street, complete with a few bars of "Funeral March of the Marionette".
 * Martin Scorsese appears in almost all of his films, usually in a small but symbolic role.
 * The passenger who fantasizes about killing his wife in Taxi Driver.
 * A photographer in The Age of Innocence.
 * A TV director in The King of Comedy who says to Tony Randall, "I can't do anything. I'm just the director."
 * The head of the household burglarized by Jenny in Gangs of New York.
 * The Black Hole features its director, Gary Nelson, as the unmasked by Durant.
 * Francis Ford Coppola shows up briefly in Apocalypse Now, playing a documentary-maker.
 * M. Night Shyamalan shows up in every one of his movies, but only three or four of his appearances are cameos. In Lady in the Water, he plays the most blatant Author Avatar this side of fanfiction. Audiences claimed that he changed the race of the fire nation in The Last Airbender just to fit himself into the story.
 * Interestingly, he first seemed to like casting himself as someone who has a negative impact on the protagonists, like the doctor who suspects Cole's mother of abusing him in The Sixth Sense, a man who David falsely suspects of carrying a gun in Unbreakable, and the driver of the car that killed Graham's wife in Signs.
 * Ian Fleming allegedly has a cameo in From Russia with Love.
 * Director Martin Campbell is one of the cyclists who fall over in GoldenEye, and the driver of the hijacked tanker truck in Casino Royale.
 * Producer Michael G. Wilson has made cameos in most of the films since Goldfinger.
 * In Quantum of Solace, he reads a newspaper in Haiti.
 * In Die Another Day and Tomorrow Never Dies, he actually got lines.
 * Peter Jackson
 * He put a cameo of himself in each one of The Lord of the Rings movies: as a human eating a carrot in Fellowship of the Ring, as a Rohirric soldier throwing a spear at an Orc in The Two Towers, and he was actually killed by Legolas and Gimli in Return of the King. His children show up in several of the crowd scenes, too.
 * In the commentary, he regrets that he didn't make his Two Towers cameo as one of the Men of Dunland who Saruman convinces to attack Rohan, as it would have meant acting alongside Christopher Lee.
 * And in the Return of the King scene, all the others pirates are played by the production team as well.
 * Jackson's sword arm doubles for Sean Astin's, in the first shot of the scene where Sam confronts Shelob.
 * Jackson actually cut out his own cameo in The Frighteners, because he was unsatisfied with his own American accent. However, in the extended version of the movie, Michael J. Fox bumps into him shortly after noticing who will be the next victim.
 * Jackson also appears as a biplane gunner in King Kong. This is an Homage to a similar cameo made by Merian C. Cooper in the original King Kong.
 * George Lucas made a cameo in Revenge of the Sith, as a Rubber Forehead Alien in the lobby of the opera house when Anakin goes to see Palpatine.
 * On that note, the Return of the Jedi director voices the sadistic droid in Jabba's palace and portrays a rebel fighter
 * Stephen King frequently appears in very minor roles in film adaptations of his books/stories (e.g. the grocery store clerk in Maximum Overdrive, the pizza delivery person in Rose Red), with the exception of the Creepshow installment The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, where he plays the title character. This goes the opposite way in his own literature: his appearance in the Dark Tower series becomes important.
 * Airplane!: The movie's directors - Jim Abrahams appears as a religious zealot and the Zuckers appear as airport ground crew.
 * Wing Commander series creator Chris Roberts, who also directed the movie, had a brief appearance as the rescue pilot from the end of the movie, welcoming Blair to Sol System.
 * Uwe Boll had a cameo in the Postal film.
 * Frank Miller plays the priest killed in the confessional in Sin City. He also played the corpse with a pen in his forehead in Daredevil.
 * George Romero appeared in Diary of the Dead in a news broadcast. He was wearing a covering hat at the time so it's quite hard to recognize him.
 * He also appears as a news director in the original Dawn of the Dead.
 * Mel Brooks makes a cameo in the "Springtime for Hitler" production number in the original version of The Producers. In the Screen to Stage Adaptation, Stormtrooper Mel was played by an actor lip-synching to the voice of Mel Brooks; his prerecorded voice was also used for That Poor Cat (and in the film of the play, he appears in The Stinger).
 * That was true of the original movie as well; only the voice was Mel's.
 * Mel Brooks also has cameos in nearly all the other movies he's produced (besides major roles like Gov. LePetomane and President Skroob).
 * Blazing Saddles: The Indian chief in Bart's flashback, and one of the villains waiting in Hedley's audition line.
 * Robin Hood: Men in Tights: Rabbi Tuckman
 * As well as Cat Hit By Dart and voice of Frankenstein's grandfather in Young Frankenstein. And one of the castle gargoyles is modeled to look like him.
 * James Dickey appears as a cop in Deliverance. (Author of the book it was based on.)
 * In 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Arthur C. Clarke is seen feeding pigeons on a bench near the White House. Later in the film, Clarke and Stanley Kubrick also appear as the US President and Soviet Premier, respectively, on a Time magazine cover.
 * John Woo appears as a jazz bartender in Hard Boiled.
 * Harry Warren and Al Dubin appear in 42nd Street as writers of a bad song. They wrote the movie's better songs, too.
 * Jonathan Safran Foer can be seen holding a leaf blower at the beginning of Everything Is Illuminated.
 * Amy Tan appears as a party guest in the first few minutes of The Joy Luck Club.
 * Terry Gilliam made an uncredited appearance in Brazil as a sinister man smoking on the stairs of Shangri-La Towers.
 * In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg watches a CNN report about the dinosaurs, and screenwriter David Koepp is eaten by the T-Rex. Spielberg also "appears" in Jaws (his voice is heard), and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (at the airport, along with producers George Lucas and Frank Marshall).
 * Michael Bay is a NASA scientist in Armageddon, and nearly has his car taken in Bad Boys II.
 * And in Transformers he's the guy Megatron flicks into a taxi cab.
 * Richard Donner is one of the sheriffs on ATVs near the end of The Goonies.
 * Peter Collinson was briefly seen in The Italian Job when the Minis drove onto the coach.
 * Ted Turner, producer, is Col. Waller Tazewell Patton in Gettysburg, and plays the same character in the prequel Gods and Generals.
 * Amusingly, he was credited in the latter as "R.E. Turner".
 * Barry Sonnenfeld (along with his wife and daughter) appears in the scene in Men in Black II where.
 * Jim Henson shows up in a ton of Muppet stuff. A Muppet Family Christmas cleaning up after everyone, The Great Muppet Caper as a photo subject of Gonzo's, The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years...
 * In the 1971 film The Andromeda Strain, one of the doctors who does not speak in the operating room where Mark Hall gets called up by the army is played by Michael Crichton, author of the book.
 * Trainspotting had a cameo from Irvine Welsh as drug dealer Mikey Forrester.
 * Precious the author Sapphire has a cameo in the very beginning, in one of Precious' fantasy sequences.
 * In the film version of Twilight, Stephenie Meyer appears as a patron in the diner.
 * This might actually be a case of being an Author Avatar, because she's actually addressed as "Stephenie" by the waitress.
 * She also appears as a guest at Bella's wedding in "Breaking Dawn Part 1".
 * Roman Polanski had a cameo in Chinatown as "Man with the Knife".
 * James O'Barr appears in The Crow as a man who steals a TV from the burning pawn shop.
 * In Angels Revenge, writer/director Greydon Clark makes a cameo as the director of Terry's film shoot.
 * Denis Johnson, author of the book Jesus' Son appeared in the film adaptation as a guy with a knife in his eye.
 * Jonathan Ames is a patron at Sally's in The Film of the Book The Extra Man.
 * Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, had a brief role as a TV reporter.
 * Also Steven Spielberg is the voice of the coast guard on the radio.
 * John Waters has these fairly often. Mostly he'll be heard rather than seen - he's the uncredited narrator of Pink Flamingos, the voice of Ted Bundy in Serial Mom, and a prank-calling pervert in Pecker for example. He also has cameos in both the original Hairspray and the film version of The Musical: In the former he has a couple of brief scenes as Penny Pingleton's psychiatrist, and in the latter he's a flasher.
 * Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, the authors of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, can be seen in the background of a diner in the movie version.
 * In Tapeheads, the composers of the film's score, Fishbone, appear as a country-western band called Ranchbone.
 * Spoofed in What's Up, Tiger Lily? - a couple walk by the hero, who mutters to his partner "Don't look now, honey, this is the obligatory scene where the director always has to walk through with his wife. ...Egomaniac."
 * In Plan 9 from Outer Space, Ed Wood plays a bum who decides No More for Me after seeing the flying saucers.
 * David Lynch appears in his adaptation of Dune as the foreman of the spice mine that's destroyed by a sandworm.
 * King Kong directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack are fighter pilots in the climax, after Cooper off-handedly suggested in real life "We should kill the son of a bitch ourselves." Peter Jackson copied this in his remake.
 * A couple of examples in The Flintstones: The original creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera appear as an executive at the meeting and a man driving a Mersandes, and director Brian Levant is the voice of the prehistoric pig at the bowling alley.
 * In Gremlins 2 director Joe Dante plays the director of The Grandpa Fred show and he voiced the gremlin that was shot by Brain Gremlin and the one in the witch costume.
 * In his earlier film Piranha he was one of the scuba divers near the middle that was presumably eaten off screen.
 * The Live Action Adaptation of Vampirella has a short, full screen shot of Vampirella creator Forrest J. Ackerman as a music club patron.
 * The punk on bus with the ghetto blaster in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was played by associate producer Kirk R. Thatcher. The scene wasn't his idea, but he did insist on writing the song "I Hate You" for use in it. He also does the Vulcan computer's voice.
 * Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin briefly appears as an ad executive in The Social Network.
 * Screenwriter and producer James Vanderbilt appears in David Fincher's Zodiac.
 * Dead Air 2009: Director Corbin Bernson appears briefly as DJ "Doc F" in the beginning of the film to deliver a single line while the protagonist DJ Logan Burnhardt is walking in late to the studio.


 * Mike Judge plays a small character role in his movies Office Space and Extract.
 * Surprisingly, famed recluse Stanley Kubrick is the voice over the radio when Joker's platoon calls for support in Full Metal Jacket.
 * Nikita Mikhalkov plays Tsar Alexander III in The Barber of Siberia.
 * In Inspector Gadget, Andy Heyward (head of DiC Entertainment, the creators of the original cartoon series) is seen at the party as a guest named "Mr. D.I.C."
 * In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, comic author Bryan Lee O'Malley and his wife Hope Larson are seen in the bar after The Clash at Demonhead perform at Lee's Palace. Additionally, O'Malley's sister Stacey appears as a customer using her laptop at Second Cup.
 * Co-writer Michael Bacall is seen talking to Comeau in the opening party.
 * In Tron: Legacy, series creator Steven Lisberger is the bartender at the End of Line Club. The credits and supplemental material list his character's name as Shaddix.
 * Oh, God! director Carl Reiner appears in the movie as a guest on the Dinah Shore Show (before Jerry's segment).
 * In The Jerk Reiner plays himself, heading a mass lawsuit against Navin Johnson.
 * Although Howard Shore's score for Peter Jackson's King Kong was thrown out, Shore himself appears in the movie as the conductor of the pit orchestra for the Kong stage show.
 * In addition to scoring both Gremlins movies, Jerry Goldsmith appears in them as well (looking directly at the camera in the convention scene in the first one and as a disgruntled cinema patron in the second).
 * A sideways example—in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Larry Hama (the most influential writer of the Joe comics) appears as a general at the M.A.R.S. presentation.
 * In Cars 2, Pixar head John Lasseter appears as pit chief John Lassetire.
 * Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, the writers who wrote Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and created the characters, appear as the annoying waiters serving ice cream to Napoleon.
 * In Matilda the picture of Magnus which contributes to is actually a portrait of Roald Dahl, author of the original book.
 * In Yes Man, Danny Wallace, the author of the original book appears in one scene.
 * Noel Clarke, writer and co-director of 4.3.2.1, has an entire supporting role as the manager of the store Emma Roberts works at (and he not only has Emma and another cast member discuss his sex appeal - and gives himself "AND" billing in the closing credits to boot - but actually appears on the poster!).
 * In The Cannonball Run, screenwriter Brock Yates appears as the race organizer and director Hal Needham appears as the ambulance EMT who inspires J.J. and Victor to use an ambulance as their vehicle.
 * Hunter S. Thompson has a cameo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas during a flashback to 1966. Raul Duke actually recognizes him and reacts with surprise, but then it's that kind of movie.
 * Creator Dave Stevens shows up in The Rocketeer as a prototype rocket pilot appearing in a top secret Luftwaffe documentary smuggled out of Germany.
 * In the original Halloween, John Carpenter is the voice of Annie's boyfriend Paul.
 * He was also a gang member in Assault on Precinct 13, Bennett in The Fog, A Norwegian in The Thing, and a Gas Station Attendant in the Village of the Damned remake among others.
 * The Graduate features Buck Henry, who cowrote the screenplay, as the hotel desk clerk.
 * In Dragonheart, director Rob Cohen is Draco's singing voice. He also makes an appearance in the second con scene (the one where the water is too shallow): he is the villager that walks out and says "Meat!" first.
 * James Cameron appears in Titanic at the start of the movie: he is the third-class passenger getting his beard checked. Also, when it shows "Jack's" hands sketching Rose, they are actually Cameron's hands; you'll notice that they look too old to be Jack's.

Literature

 * In Thomas Mann's novel The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, the main character successfully cons a Scottish lord who is physically identical to Mann.
 * And in Mephisto, the novel by Thomas Mann's son, Klaus Mann, among several characters based on real people, there is also that of Sebastien Bruckner - based on the author's own person.
 * Kim Newman's short story "Pitbull Brittan", in the Temps anthology edited by Alex Stewart, features a brief mention of a bullied schoolboy named Sandy Stewart asking the title character for help. Later in the story, Sandy's pleas having been ignored, a news report reveals he has committed suicide.
 * Martin Amis in the novel Money - he beats his protagonist at chess.
 * This occurs in almost every Clive Cussler novel. Cussler's character will usually give the protagonists his current vehicle to aid them in their mission.
 * Jan Kantůrek, the Czech translator of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, managed to include himself in his translation of Jingo. At one point, a character says that Carrot talked like "a little schoolteacher"; naturally, he translated the word as "kantůrek" ("little teacher"), and italicized it for good measure.
 * Ayn Rand shows up in Atlas Shrugged as one of the denizens of Galt's Gulch, a fishwife who's also one of the best authors there. She notably also pines for John's affection.
 * Don Quixote features a few characters discussing Cervantes' work at a Book-Burning. It's massive Self-Deprecation, with the characters offering some pretty sharp criticisms.
 * East of Eden being partly about the author's family, obviously has him there a few times, mainly in one intercalary chapter explaining one of his Uncles. But it's most notable that he has a scene where Adam Trask shows up to his mother's house to speak with his Grandma, and they meet as John Steinbeck and his sister stand behind their mother.
 * In the Dr. Seuss' book There's a Wocket in My Pocket, the Bofa on the Sofa - whom the narrator wishes wasn't there - looks very Ted Geisel-ish.

Live-Action TV
"Paul Bellini: Thank God that's finally over. [dances on their graves]"
 * In an episode of Angel, Joss Whedon gets to play Lorne's brother Numfar, who does both the Dance of Joy and the Dance of Shame. Joss Whedon also was the voice of a newscaster in the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 * Joss had also planned to do the Firefly theme song (the "Ballad of Serenity"), which he wrote; before Sonny Rhodes was chosen to record it. A recording of Joss singing the theme song is included as a special feature in the DVD box set.
 * In the Musical Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, writers Marti Noxon and David Fury both have small singing parts - bemoaning a parking ticket and celebrating successful dry cleaning, respectively.
 * David Fury later played the Jim Henson Expy in the Angel episode "Smile Time".
 * Terry Pratchett plays the toymaker in the Sky One miniseries based on the Discworld book Hogfather.
 * And the Arch-Astronomer of Krull in The Colour of Magic.
 * And a postman in Going Postal.
 * And gets the literal last word of dialogue in all three!
 * Neil Gaiman appears in the background in one scene in the TV adaptation of Neverwhere.
 * J. Michael Straczynski shows up to in the Grand Finale of Babylon 5.
 * Fans swear he's the one who starts the Slow Clap when Sheridan comes back from the dead, but he denies it.
 * Creative consultant Harlan Ellison also makes a brief cameo in one episode as a Psi Cop.
 * Jeff Lindsay, author of the Dexter novels, appeared as a police officer in the third season of the TV series.
 * Joss Whedon appears, though just in the background, at the end of Firefly episode "The Message".
 * He played the scientist interviewing River in "The R. Tam Sessions"..
 * Executive producer/showrunner Carlton Cuse has done multiple voice cameos on Lost, including a newscast in "Through the Looking Glass" and Jacob's call for help in "The Man Behind the Curtain." Co-creator/showrunner Damon Lindelof voices the pilot of the plane Jack is on in "Through the Looking Glass" and claims to have "played" Locke's hand when Locke flips the Pearl's lightswitch in "?"
 * In the Doctor Who serial Arc of Infinity, producer John Nathan-Turner is seen briefly on a street in Amsterdam. He was (in real life) keeping Amsterdam people out of the frame, and a lot of people think he was filmed by accident, and since they were in a hurry, they decided to keep it.
 * Writer Mark Gatiss appeared, uncredited, as a Spitfire pilot in "Victory of the Daleks" (also cameoing in Steven Moffat's "A Good Man Goes to War").
 * Tony Kushner has a cameo as a rabbi in the Angels in America miniseries.
 * In the series finale of Battlestar Galactica, Ron Moore appears as a bystander reading a magazine article on robotics as Head Six and Head Gaius walk by.
 * Kathy Reichs, the author of the Temperance Brennan books, gets a cameo in season 2 of Bones.
 * Douglas Adams appeared a couple of times in the televised version of The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy. Most notably, he walks into the ocean stark naked after the actor who was hired didn't show up.
 * Susan Nickson had a small role on Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
 * Bryan Singer appears in at least one, possibly two, episodes of House
 * Ed Bye, director of Red Dwarf, appeared as the Grim Reaper in Only The Good...
 * And Rob Grant, one of the writers, appeared in Backwards as a man unsmoking a cigarette.
 * Colin Dexter, writer of the Inspector Morse novels, has appeared in nearly every single episode of the TV series.
 * Series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas appear in a late first-season episode of How I Met Your Mother as fake paramedics who take part in Barney's "greatest pickup line of all time."
 * Mark Wahlberg appeared as himself on Entourage, playing with Vince and Drama at a charity golf tournament.
 * Robert J. Sawyer, author of the novel Flash Forward, has a brief, no lines cameo in the pilot of the TV series
 * Stephen King had a cameo as a pizza delivery guy in one tv adaptation of "Rose Red".
 * Grahman Linehan can be seen in The IT Crowd, as a scientist who runs across the screen during the Fight Scene between Reynholm Junior and his girlfriend who was from Ira^H^H^H^H^H used to be a man.
 * "Two Cathedrals," the second season finale of The West Wing, has flashbacks to the president's teenage years, where we meet his abusive father. He's played by Lawrence O'Donnell, who was a producer on the show. The cameo wasn't planned, but O'Donnell read the part at a read-through before it had been cast and it was decided that he was very convincing in the role. In the series finale, Aaron Sorkin also appears briefly and silently in the inauguration scene.
 * Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, is seen in Merlotte's talking to Sam in the final episode of the second season of True Blood.
 * In the first season The Man From UNCLE episode "The Giuoco Piano Affair", series co-creator/executive producer Norman Felton, series co-creator/producer Sam Rolfe, associate producer Joseph Calvelli, and episode director Richard Donner all have cameos as guests at a party hosted by episode guest star Jill Ireland (then-wife of series co-star David McCallum).
 * And in an episode ("The Little John Doe Affair") of the Distaff Counterpart Spin-Off The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., episode co-writer Joseph Calvelli also has a part as a police chief.
 * Stargate SG 1 episode 200 had a number of spoof concepts of how the series might look if it were based on another popular series. In the case of the Star Trek: The Original Series spoof, the Scottish engineer was one of the producers.
 * Donald P. Bellisario:
 * Appeared very briefly in a few episodes of NCIS. The episode "SWAK" has him in a walk in role at a hospital and in "Cover Story" where his portrait is sitting next to McGee's as authors in a book publishers office.
 * He also appears, along with his son, as a man and child being evacuated from the island of Boragora when its volcano is erupting in the Tales of the Gold Monkey episode "A Distant Shout of Thunder."
 * And in Quantum Leap's "A Portrait For Troian," he plays the man into whom Scott Bakula leaped that episode.
 * In a season 2 episode of Numb3rs, two guys from the Russian mafia come and threaten Charlie by sitting in the back of the room while he's teaching. One of them is Nick Falacci, one of the show's creators.
 * Simon Nye cast himself in two minor, non-speaking role in Men Behaving Badly - as "Catatonic Man" in 'Gary and Tony', and as Gary's Only Other Friend, Clive (previously The Ghost) in 'Wedding'.
 * Sons of Anarchy: Increasingly blind Big Otto is played by Series Creator Kurt Sutter.
 * In the first episode of Wire in The Blood, Val McDermid can be seen in the crowd outside the police station as a suspect is being transferred.
 * Chris Carter appeared in two episodes of The X-Files: in the final episode of season 2 he has a brief role as "Another Agent" questioning Scully in one scene, and has a non-speaking cameo as a cinema audience member at the beginning of season 7 episode "Hollywood A.D." He also appears in the background of a hospital scene in the second movie.
 * Most of Stephen J. Cannell's on-camera appearances were in other people's productions, but he also appeared in Tenspeed And Brown Shoe and Silk Stalkings, and had a recurring role on Renegade (as the Big Bad, no less).
 * Frequent Farscape director Rowan Woods plays an acting role (rather more than a cameo) in the episode "John Quixote" as the fat male Zhaan-impersonator.
 * In Slings and Arrows, creators Susan Coyne and Mark McKinney play supporting roles as Anna Conroy and Richard Smith-Jones. The final member of the creative team, Bob Martin, makes his cameo as accountant Terry and gets a chance to deliver the "brief candle" monologue from Macbeth.
 * Dave Barry guest-starred in one episode of Dave's World, the sitcom based on his column. He was a disgruntled character who got into a bidding war with Dave over an air conditioner during a heatwave. The end credits featured real Dave Barry and screen Dave Barry (Harry Anderson) jamming together on guitars. To take things full-circle, the real Dave then wrote a column about his experience on the show, which was published in the book Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up.
 * Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, in addition to having an Author Avatar as a main character (George), appears in extra and bit roles, sometimes thinly disguised but just as often clearly recognizable. In the spite of the frequency, this is never lampshaded, and he never develops into a consistent character as in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
 * Pretty Little Liars had Sara Shepard, the author of the original books the show is based from, as a substitute teacher.
 * Mark Goodson turned up on the panel of Match Game when panelist Charles Nelson Reilly was late.
 * The Price Is Right was created way back in 1956 by Bob Stewart, who infrequently turned up, notably on the nighttime show, to assist in staging merchandise the contestants were bidding on.
 * Kids in The Hall was told to hold a contest to add interest to the show. Not wanting to give away standard prizes like a free ticket to attend a taping, they decided the prize for their contest was going to be the right to poke Paul Bellini with a stick, one of the shows writers. The fact that Paul Bellini appeared in his skits wearing only a towel, never spoke, and the contest was called "Touch Paul Bellini," increased the absurdity of it. Before long, the Paul Bellini fan club had a larger membership than the Kids In The Hall fan club. He had a few more cameos (including a second contest where the prize was to have breakfast with him) before one speaking line during the final scene of series.
 * Kids in The Hall was told to hold a contest to add interest to the show. Not wanting to give away standard prizes like a free ticket to attend a taping, they decided the prize for their contest was going to be the right to poke Paul Bellini with a stick, one of the shows writers. The fact that Paul Bellini appeared in his skits wearing only a towel, never spoke, and the contest was called "Touch Paul Bellini," increased the absurdity of it. Before long, the Paul Bellini fan club had a larger membership than the Kids In The Hall fan club. He had a few more cameos (including a second contest where the prize was to have breakfast with him) before one speaking line during the final scene of series.

Theatre

 * On the 1960 Columbia recording of On the Town, composer Leonard Bernstein not only conducts but also sings the part of the barker at Coney Island ("Rajah Bimmy"). When the recording was first issued, the singer was credited as Randel Striboneen. (It also had Betty Comden and Adolph Green in their original roles, which are hardly cameos.)

Toys

 * The head sculpt for the G.I. Joe action figure "Tunnel Rat" is based on Larry Hama, the longtime writer of the Joe Comic Book. This was done by the toy developers as a tribute.

Video Games

 * Chris Roberts has a cameo in the big trial scene at the end of Wing Commander IV when you win the game, as the Black Lance member who proclaimed "... and I couldn't go on!"
 * He also provided the voice for the Communications Officer for the TCS Coventry, one of the destroyers escorting your carrier later in Wing Commander III.
 * Hideo Kojima lends his voice to in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
 * He also acted as the motion-capture actor for the sailor aboard.
 * He is also recruitable in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, found inside a truck at the Crater Base before fighting the Pupa.
 * Yuji Naka is referenced in dialogue as a civilian in Shadow the Hedgehog.
 * To win Doom 2, you must kill.
 * In the next installment, one of the guards is voiced by John Carmack. "Welcome to the Dungeon, Marine" indeed.
 * Harlan Ellison, author of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, voiced AM in the game adaptation.
 * Stan Lee also continues his trend of Marvel cameos in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, appearing in-game as Senator Lieber, whom you rescue from Titanium Man. Deadpool, per his Fourth Wall breaking antics, claims he knows him from "somewhere".
 * Brütal Legend has (as of its second piece of downloadable content) a bust of some guy available to put up on Mount Rockmore. The Guardian of Metal thinks he knows him from somewhere.
 * Masahiro Sakurai lend his voice to King Dedede in Super Smash Bros.. Brawl.
 * Pokémon has one in every single one of its main games. They are in the developers room. They also usually give you a certificate if you fully complete your Pokédex.
 * In Pokémon Black and White, you actually get to BATTLE one of the employees. Shigeki Morimoto to be specific.
 * In Scott Pilgrim, in Lucas Lee's stage, twice a guy jumps into the action with one of those things you use to yell "Cut!" or "Action!" and begin an encounter. The guy is Edgar Wright, the director of the film.
 * Sonic Team's Saturn firefighting game Burning Rangers has you rescue civilians, who email you with letters of thanks after each mission. Several of the civilians are Sonic Team members, who include cheat codes, production sketches and the like with their emails. (There's also a real-life Japanese poet who sends you a couple of poems - she's a friend of then-Team head Yuji Naka.)
 * George Lucas makes a brief cameo in The Secret of Monkey Island as a man in a troll suit.
 * In Tales of Monkey Island, there is a mention of a "Nor Treblig" (Ron Gilbert backwards) through the series, and Murray MSTing mentions many staff members of LucasArts and Telltale Games in the end credits of Chapter 3]], including Dan Connors and Kevin Bruner (whose portrayals in two picture frames as "D.C. Grosscup" and "K.B. Popnecker" appear in the Courthouse in Chapter 4).
 * The first Ace Attorney has a cameo by Shu Takumi's dog Missile, as an enthusiastic (but not very useful) police dog.
 * A different Missile becomes a full-on cast member in Takumi's later game Ghost Trick. This time he's a Pomeranian, which is the same breed as Takumi's Missile.
 * Jacques Portsman's design is based on his voice actor, Yuuki Furukawa.
 * Buddy Faith was originally based on another member of the design team, who later asked them to make Buddy look less like him. Apparently he wasn't comfortable seeing himself as a corpse.
 * In a more minor example, the characters' voices are provided by members of the dev team (the localization team for the English versions) rather than dedicated voice actors - for instance, Manfred von Karma is voiced by the first game's composer, Masakazu Sugimori, in the Japanese version, while his daughter Franziska is played by localizer Janet Hsu in the English version.
 * Rise of the Triad's cast of enemies consist of some members of the Developers of Incredible Power, such as George Broussard as the Triad Enforcer, Joe Siegler as Sebastian "Doyle" Krist, and Tom Hall as the Final Boss El Oscuro.
 * Aquaria has a Developer's Room )  with two unattractive (according to Naija humorous narration) fish that happen to have hair, one short and blonde, the other long and black. Now, in case you didn't know before, one of the amazing features of this game was that it was made just about entirely by two men.
 * Jane Jensen appears in Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within, on the cover of a German newspaper Gabriel picks up at the Hunt Club, and in Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, when Gabriel looks through the bookstore's window in Rennes-le-Château.
 * David Cage is modeled for and voices the intro/tutorial of Indigo Prophecy.
 * While he isn't the creator, Dan Forden, who worked with sound and music for the Mortal Kombat games, would occasionally pop up in the corner of the screen and say "TOASTY!" when one of the fighters performed an uppercut. After 3, he stopped appearing, but he's back in Mortal Kombat 9
 * Jeff Vogel is a fourth-wall breaking Easter Egg near the end of Avernum 3.
 * In Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, say hello to a weaponized Keiji Inafune.
 * The third game of the series introduces us Keiji Inafune as a freaking battleship! Oh and he brings former Xbox Mission Division spokesman Izawa along for the ride.
 * Sid Meier has served as an advisor to the player throughout the Civilization series; in later games, his digital avatar even runs the tutorial.
 * One title in the NHL Hockey series allows you to basically create members of the EA development team if you input their names in the Create-A-Player option.
 * In an early level of Half Life, it's revealed Gabe Newell has an office in Black Mesa.
 * In Space Ace, creator Don Bluth is the VA for Borf
 * Five Nights at Freddy's, creator Scott Cawthorn is the VA for the Phone Guy.
 * In The Pit stage in the original Mortal Kombat, one of the impaled heads at the bottom of the Pit is that of developer Ed Boon. And of course, in many games, sound designer Dan Forden will sometimes appear and say, "Toasty!" in response to the player doing a powerful uppercut.

Web Animation

 * Broken Saints writer/director Brooke Burgess (a bit reluctantly) agreed to be the voice actor for Gabriel when voices were recorded for the DVD. Like with Shayamalan's cameos, this is actually a meaty role and more than just a regular cameo.

Web Comics

 * This El Goonish Shive strip (panel 6) has Dan Shive in a comic shop. Note that this is different from the Author Avatar character that appears in some non-canon strips.
 * Schlock Mercenary webcomic sometimes have own author appear, most notable one being one where he complained about many new characters being difficult to draw!
 * Girl Genius authors performed "radio dramas". Note how their colorist Cheyenne Wright voices ham-tastic Othar Tryggvassen.
 * Also contains a meta example. The storyteller is more or less identical to Phil from What's New with Phil and Dixie.
 * Tagalong, the writer, and Tria, the artist, make occasional appearances during Breaking the Fourth Wall moments of Dubious Company. This usually ends with Tiren chasing them off. Tria also appears as a random student in the High School AU arc giving Elly Valentines Day chocolate before bolting out the door.
 * Jeph Jacques appears as an extra in this Questionable Content strip.

Web Original

 * Metal Gear Solid Philanthropy director Giacomo Talamini gets top billing as Solid Snake in the film because no other capable actors who looked enough like Solid Snake could be found.
 * Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has quite a few:
 * All three Whedon brothers lend their voices to the Bad Horse Chorus.
 * Jed Whedon also plays both Chorus member #2 onscreen, and ELE member Dead Bowie.
 * Zack Whedon gets a bit part as a paramedic during the ending.
 * Maurissa Tancharoen is one of Captain Hammer's groupies.
 * And it's actually Joss Whedon's fist that smashes Dr. Horrible's van-controlling device.
 * On the Lego Indiana Jones website, there is a short cartoon that ends with minifigs of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg watching the short itself, complete with a E.T baseball cap and a plaid T shirt.

Western Animation
"The Judge: This is a trial by jury, and it's up to your peers to decide this. The Monarch: Peers? Peers?! How dare you! That repulsive display of humanity out there?"
 * Shortly after Aladdin gives his bread to starving children, two men discuss the prince who is passing on the street. They are modeled and voiced by the film's directors (other characters are drawn like crew members).
 * Likewise, when Mushu scares two men in order to get fireworks, they are Mulan's directors.
 * The Princess and the Frog has directors Roger Clements and John Musker on a float tossing beads during the Mardi Gras parade. And Walt Disney himself shows up at the parade, watching the wedding procession from a balcony and as a customer in Tiana's restaurant in the ending.
 * Ron Clements and John Musker must love doing this. They also appeared as a pair of aliens that give Jim Hawkins directions to the RLS Legacy, and they're victims of |Hercules' chariot-pulling equivalent of Drives Like Crazy.
 * Going way back, the short "Ferdinand the Bull" features several of the animators drawn into the parade scene, with Walt Disney himself as the matador.
 * Matt Groening appears as one of the heads in the head museum in the pilot of Futurama.
 * Groening appeared in an episode of The Simpsons where they went to a sci-fi convention and everyone was excited to see the creator of Futurama. He was also a boss in The Simpsons Game.
 * Speaking of Futurama, Leela once enters an internet chat room filled with nerds, all of whom are drawn after members of the production crew.
 * And the animators also sometimes inserted themselves into episodes, such as "The Last Temptation of Krust", where stepping through the zip-pan from Krusty and the marketers to the Canyonero waiting outside reveals a hidden scene with several staffers (and Jay Leno).
 * The Itchy & Scratchy production crew are all based on the real-life writers and animators.
 * The tall man from The Simpsons episodes "22 Short Films About Springfield" and "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" is said to have been based on writer Ian Maxtone-Graham.
 * The jury in The Venture Brothers episode "The Trial of the Monarch" is entirely composed of people who work on the show, including the creators, making this exchange even better.


 * The creators of Teen Titans draw themselves in there all the time, In fact, it's hard to find an episode without a single reference to the creative team.
 * In an episode of Rocko's Modern Life creator Joe Murray appears next to Rocko in a hospital bed after he had been in a coma and he comments on how Rocko is drawn Off-Model.
 * Jhonen Vasquez makes a cameo in a couple of Invader Zim episodes. He's the guy with the red hair and sunglasses who swallowed a piranha.
 * Other writers, such as Roman Dirge, Danielle Koenig, and Frank Conniff, also cameo frequently; storyboard artists and other production staff members also pop up. Executive producer Mary Harrington played a parody of herself in the "Mysterious Mysterys" episode, and—on arguably the funniest instance—Vasquez and director/producer Steve Russel can be seen eating dinner together with a script marked "The Nightmare Begins" (the title of the first episode) on the table between them in "Germs".
 * In an episode of Batman the Animated Series, series producers Bruce Timm and Paul Dini appear as men singing "Auld Lang Syne" in a diner on New Year's Eve, when Batman and Gordon sit down for their once-a-year coffee.
 * Bruce Timm was actually the villain in the episode "The Grey Ghost Strikes!"—though this is a bit more than a cameo.
 * Dini voiced the ineffectual guard who appeared at the beginning of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
 * When The Joker is looking for a new Harley, among the terrible candidates is a fat man in a Harley suit, who's a cameo (and self-deprecation) of Dini. Later lampshaded when Joker laments his choice of a bubble-headed woman by saying "I should've gone with the fat guy."
 * A couple of cops modeled after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird would occasionally appear in the second animated series whenever the plot required policemen, making them both this and Recurring Extras. Also, several background extras in Back to the Sewer and Turtles Forever are based on people who worked on the series, as well as some of their friends.
 * While Turtles Forever has appearances by the Eastman and Laird cops, they also appear
 * Not only does The Spectacular Spider-Man Executive Producer Greg Weisman appear in the show's opening, Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee also made a cameo in the first episode of season 2.
 * Stan also appeared in an episode of the 1990s Incredible Hulk animated series, as She-Hulk's dad!
 * And in the final episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series as HIMSELF!
 * The creators and writers for Robot Chicken always appear in the last episode of a season and the first episode of the next one as part of a Running Gag where the show gets cancelled every year, usually accompanied by most of the staff dying in the process only for everything to get better next season.
 * Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett portrayed numerous voices for the show, including Helga's asthmatic stalker, Brainy; radio station M-JAZZ deejay Nocturnal Ned; and Arnold's dad Miles in episodes "Arnold's Hat," "Parents Day," and "The Journal." Story editor Antoinette Stella portrayed Arnold's football-headed Hot Mom, Stella, in "Parents Day" and "The Journal." (Ironically, Bartlett says the character Stella is not named for her voice actress, but in honor of The Grateful Dead's song "Stella Blue.")
 * The Interdimensional Comic Con Panel that Bat-Mite sets up in Batman the Brave And The Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite" features animated versions of the actual show creators. The speech about how this show's Lighter and Softer Batman is no less valid that the grim avenger of the night was essentially the series' mission statement, and Executive Producer James Tucker's Take That to the critics. As an added bonus, the two detractors of this idea are Batman the Animated Series creators Bruce Timm and Paul Dini (Who actually wrote Legends of the Dark Mite) dressed as Joker and Harley Quinn respectively.
 * In the WWII Looney Tunes cartoon "Russian Rhapsody", many, if not most, of the gremlins are caricatures of the cartoon studio personnel.
 * The Incredibles: Director Brad Bird is the voice of Edna 'E' Mode.
 * Pixar does this all the time, usually because the director does a placeholder voice for a minor character and it ends up good enough to be kept in. In Finding Nemo, head sea-turtle Crush is director Andrew Stanton (he also voiced the lobster with the New England accent as well as the seagulls); Toy Story 3 has Lee Unkrich as the jack-in-the-box who yells "New toys!" when the gang arrive at Sunnyside; Up's co-writer Bob Peterson voices both Dug and Alpha. There's probably others.
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "Journey to Ba Sing Se", the [[media:Avatars.jpg|fake Avatar holding the staff]] is producer Mike DiMartino. In "The Ember Island Players", playwright Pu-on Tim is the episode's writer, Tim Hedrick.
 * In "The King of Omashu," Aang has to fight a formidable foe. He gets to choose between Mike and Bryan.
 * Also, a stealthy (and possibly even unintentional example): Bryan and Mike. Notice anything familiar?
 * Outside of their two major roles, the creators of Phineas and Ferb pop up from time to time as in universe avatars. In a recent episode they explain jokes even.
 * Creator and director of The Ren and Stimpy Show, John Kricfalusi, is the voice of Ren, at least in the first two seasons. The minor character Mr. Horse is also confirmed to be heavily based on him, including repeatedly saying "What are ya?", which was a catchphrase of Kricfalusi's.
 * Casting agent and director Mark Evanier appears in a voice cameo as himself in the Garfield and Friends episode "Mistakes Will Happen", his voice can be heard telling Garfield that he could say a line better.
 * A U.S. Acres segment in season 6 has Wade actually running out of the cartoon and onto blank paper, where he engages in a conversation with an offscreen Jim Davis.
 * In The Flintstones TV special "I Yabba Dabba Do" William Hanna and Joseph Barbera appear as themselves as wedding guests saying Pebbles and Bam-Bam were made for each other.
 * Not really a cameo but in the original Tom and Jerry shorts William Hanna provided most of the vocal sounds made by the titular characters; he even voiced them in a few instances were they actually spoke.
 * Joe Barbera turned up in cartoon form in Bravo Dooby Doo and under pseudonyms in a couple of episodes of What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
 * Lots of examples in the animated adaption of The Bear. Raymond Briggs, creator of the original cartoon book, appears as the face of the moon. Composer and songwriter Howard Blake is the pianist who sees the bears go past. Executive Producer Paul Madden is the seaman who spots the bear cub on the ice floe. Director Hilary Audus is the mother at the zoo with her family. Art Director Joanna Harrison is the cashier at the zoo shop. And the baby in the cot, with the initials JC on his romper suit, is supposed to be Producer John Coates.
 * In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Tiny Toons Music Television," the music video for "Respect" features the executive producers in one shot and the writers in another.
 * And in the very first episode, "The Looney Beginning," the WB animator who's charged with thinking up the series at the risk of being fired is voiced (uncredited) by the executive producer.
 * In the final episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Mac is handed a cardboard with signings from all the imaginary friends. If you notice closely, the author's signing is in it too.
 * Craig McCracken also made an earlier one when Eduardo wrote to the creators of the Dora the Explorer parody. He also calls out to someone named "Lauren" i.e Lauren Faust, one of the producers of FHFIF and his wife.
 * The Powerpuff Girls Movie has a cameo of both Craig and Lauren in the office that Mojo shows the girls at the climax of the film. They're the ones that are just out of the door.
 * Also in the special The Powerpuff Girls Rule, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo of Craig and Lauren after
 * Butch Hartman is briefly seen in The Fairly OddParents movie "Abra-Catastrophe!"
 * Butch also makes a cameo as the maitre d' in the live-action movie.
 * Caricatures of the staff can also be seen in the title card of "Fairy Idol".
 * In the Animated Adaptation of Herge's Tintin comic books. While Herge himself had died long before the series was made, the producers still included him as a character. An animated likeness of Herge can be spotted in numerous crowd scenes, although he never says or does anything besides occasionally doodling in a sketch pad. He's also apparently Tintin's neighbor, as his name can be found on the mailbox next to Tintin's.
 * This was also the case in the original comics.
 * The feature adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! features a Who-ified portrait of Dr. Seuss.
 * In My Life Me, the three girls always following Raffi around are based on the show's three creators.
 * On Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, a caricature of series producer Ralph Bakshi turns up. In the episode "Night Of The Bat-Bat," Mighty Mouse scribbles a caricature of John Kricfalusi on the side of the phone booth in which he's talking on the phone with Bat-Bat.
 * Near the end of Random! Cartoons short Moobeard The Cow Pirate, creator Kyle A. Carrozza walks by an establishing shot in cat Funny Animal form, alongside a female Funny Animal cat who's apparently based on a friend who also works in animation. Carrozza also provided the voices for a couple of minor characters.
 * Sabrina Alberghetti, senior storyboard artist on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, appears as a pony in the show's season 2 finale.
 * In Young Justice, co-producer Greg Weisman voices Lucas "Snapper" Carr, formerly the Justice League's teen mascot and currently Miss Martian and Superboy's civics teacher. He originally auditioned for the role of Red Tornado, because he appears in way more episodes and shares a voice with his creator T.O. Morrow and brothers Red Torpedo and Red Volcano, meaning he'd get paid more. Unfortunately, 'that ogre' (and co-producer) Brandom Vietti thought Jeff Bennett did it better, and suggested Snapper as an alternative.