Raynis was born in 1956 in Los Angeles, and began his career in animation at the age of 21 on Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings (1978), working as a background illustrator.
[4][5] Raynis is known as one of the main producers of The Simpsons, for which he has won six Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program.
[7] Raynis co-created Extreme Ghostbusters (1997) and Godzilla: The Series (1998–2000) with Jeff Kline,[8][9] and Men in Black: The Series (1997–2001), Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (1999–2000), and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (1999–2001) with Kline and Duane Capizzi.
[11][12] In film, Raynis was a supervising producer of The Simpsons Movie and the shorts The Longest Daycare and Playdate with Destiny.
He also produced animation segments for the film The Edge of Seventeen along with David Silverman and various Simpsons staff.