Most importantly this year, however—from a sign-of-things-to-come perspective—the 35-year-old launched Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, an ambitious, web-only series with backing from Google and sponsorship support from Burger King, among others. While Cavalcade's impact on MacFarlane's personal fortune might be small (at least for now), its effect on content distribution models could be far-reaching. Fifty two-minute shorts are being distributed to sites via Google's AdSense network, with advertisers paying a premium to be packaged with this original content. Google and MacFarlane split the revenues, and if a short catches fire, MacFarlane has yet another idea to sell to Fox. Everyone wins, except for the TV networks, which have to be nervous to see Google stepping so squarely on their turf.
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