At first blush, they appear to be an unlikely source of authority to answer life’s big questions—at least those posed by children. But the StoryBots—characters Tiny Beep, Bing, Bang, Boop, and Bo—know the answers to why night happens, how airplanes fly, why you should brush your teeth, where rain comes from, and other vital information. They star on the Netflix original children’s series Ask the StoryBots, which recently won a Daytime Emmy Award and which was cocreated by alumnus Gregg Spiridellis, who serves as its executive producer, its writer, and a voice actor. Ask the StoryBots, based on the digital education brand StoryBots, also created by Spiridellis LC’93 and brother Evan, was one of only two children’s shows named as a finalist for a Peabody Award.

Long pioneers of new media, Spiridellis and his brother first came to the public’s attention in 2000 when their nascent digital company, Jibjab Media, Inc., produced its first viral video phenomenon, an interactive parody of the Founding Fathers rapping about the Declaration of Independence. It was followed by a bigger hit, which featured George W. Bush and Al Gore in a rap battle for the 2000 presidential election. Another political parody, This Land, surfaced in 2004 to poke fun at presidential candidates Bush and John Kerry, leading the late Peter Jennings of ABC’s World News Tonight to name the brothers People of the Year for 2004. In the intervening years, the Spiridellis brothers have clearly not rested on their laurels, given their recent honors.