fiction.wikisort.org - Director

Kyle Balda (born March 9, 1971) is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the animated films The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud, and Minions (2015), with Pierre Coffin. He has also worked as animator on several films, including Jumanji, Toy Story 2, and Despicable Me. He previously worked for Pixar on three of their films and is currently with Illumination.

Kyle Balda
Balda in 2015.
Born	(1971-03-09) March 9, 1971 (age 51) Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Occupation	Animator, film director
Years active	1994–present
Employer	Illumination (2010—present)
Notable work	Minions, Despicable Me 3, Minions: The Rise of Gru

Early life

Balda was born in Tucson, Arizona, to a Maltese mother.[1] He studied at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1990s and dropped out after two years for a job he was offered.[1][2][3]

Career

During his time at CalArts, Balda was hired by LucasArts as an intern to create the animated opening credit sequence for the graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle.[4]

He started his career as an animator by working at Industrial Light & Magic, in the films including 1994's The Mask as graphics animator, 1995's Jumanji as animation supervisor, and in 1996's Mars Attacks! as character animator.[2] He also worked at Weta Digital once in New Zealand, on the 1996 film The Frighteners, he animated the Grim Reaper for the film.[2] Later Balda started working at Pixar, and his works included 1998's A Bug's Life as an additional animator, 1999's Toy Story 2 as the directing animator, and 2001's Monsters, Inc. as animator.[2] In 2010, he joined the Illumination Entertainment in Paris, and worked in the 2010s Despicable Me as the head of layout. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools.[2]

In 2012, Balda co-directed the Illumination's animated film for his directorial debut The Lorax along with Chris Renaud.[3][5] The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012 by Universal Pictures and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million.[6]

In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, Minions, along with Pierre Coffin.[5][7][8] The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015, by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion.[9]

In 2017, Balda co-directed Despicable Me 3. In his role as co-director he pushed for the film to have a more vibrant color palette than its predecessors.[10]

Personal life

Balda currently resides in the Oregon coast.[11]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Notes
1994	The Mask	Graphics animator
1995	Jumanji	Animation supervisor
1996	Mars Attacks!	Character animator
1996	The Frighteners
1998	A Bug's Life	Additional animator
1999	Toy Story 2	Directing animator
2001	Monsters, Inc.	Animator
2010	Despicable Me	Layout supervisor
2012	The Lorax	Co-director
	Forces of Nature	Director
2015	Minions
	Competition
2016	Weenie
2017	Despicable Me 3
2022	Minions: The Rise of Gru

References

External links

• Kyle Balda at IMDb

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