Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, production designer, and animator who is best known for directing the stop-motion animation films ''

The Nightmare Before Christmas ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American Stop motion, stop-motion animated film, animated musical film, musical dark fantasy, dark fantasy film directed by Henry Seli ...

'' (1993), '' James and the Giant Peach'' (1996), '' Monkeybone'' (2001), '' Coraline'' (2009), and '' Wendell & Wild'' (2022). He studied at the Program in Experimental Animation at

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bo ...

, under the guidance of

Jules Engel Jules Engel (born Gyula Engel, March 11, 1909 – September 6, 2003) was an American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher. He was the founding director of the experimental animation ...

. Selick is also known for his collaborations with voice actor and artist Joe Ranft.

Early life

Selick was born in

Glen Ridge, New Jersey Glen Ridge is a borough in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough’s population was 7,802, reflecting an increase of 275 (+3.7%) from the 2010 census count of 7,527,

, the son of Melanie (née Molan) and Charles H. Selick. He was raised in Rumson. Selick did little but draw from ages 3 to 12. His fascination with animation came at a young age, when he saw Lotte Reiniger's stop-motion film '' The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' and the animated creatures of '' The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' by Ray Harryhausen. He graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven High School in 1970. After studying science at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

in New Brunswick and art at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

and

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of sho ...

in London, Selick eventually enrolled at the

(CalArts) to study animation. His two student films there, ''Phases'' and ''Tube Tales'', were nominated for Student Academy Awards.

Film work

Disney

After his academic studies, he went to work for Walt Disney Studios as an "

in-betweener The In-Betweener is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Publication history The character first appeared in ''Warlock'' #10 (Dec. 1975) and was created by Jim Starlin. Fictional character biograph ...

" and animator trainee on such films as ''

Pete's Dragon ''Pete's Dragon'' is the title of two Disney live-action films: * ''Pete's Dragon'' (1977 film) * ''Pete's Dragon'' (2016 film) {{Short pages monitor