Seth Woodbury MacFarlane was born in the small New England town of Kent, Connecticut, where he lived with his mother, Ann Perry (Sager), an admissions office worker, his father, Ronald Milton MacFarlane, a prep school teacher, and his sister Rachael MacFarlane, now a voice actress and singer. He is of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, and descends from Mayflower passengers.
Seth attended and studied animation at the Rhode Island School of Design and, after he graduated, he was hired by Hanna-Barbera Productions (Now called Cartoon Network Studios) working as an animator and writer on the TV series Johnny Bravo (1997) and Cow and Chicken (1995). He also worked for Walt Disney Animation as a writer on the TV series Le Livre de la jungle, souvenirs d'enfance (1996). He created The Life of Larry (1995) which was originally supposed to be used as an in-between on MADtv (1995). Unfortunately the deal fell through but, a few months later, executives at FOX called him into their offices and gave him $50,000 to create a pilot for what would eventually become Les Griffin (1999).
On September 11, 2001, he was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 after being a keynote speaker at his alma-mater in Rhode Island. Due to a mix-up by his travel agent, he was told that his flight was scheduled to depart at 8:15am but it really departed at 7:45am and he had arrived at Boston Logan Airport a few minutes after boarding was stopped on his flight and he was told he would have to wait for the next flight. At 8:45am, one hour after the departure of American Airlines Flight 11, it was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into One World Trade Center (North Tower) in New York City killing all on-board. He was able to contact his parents within 20 minutes of Flight 11 striking the first tower to tell them he was okay. He said that he thanked his travel agent for screwing up the departure time or he would have been on board.
