Kyle Balda (born March 9, 1971) is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films ''

The Lorax ''The Lorax'' is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, the titular character, who "speaks for the trees" and confronts the Once-ler, a business magnate who causes ...

'' (2012), with Chris Renaud; '' Minions'' (2015), with Pierre Coffin; and '' Minions: The Rise of Gru'' (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. He previously worked as an animator for

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pr ...

before moving to

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

where he worked on three of their films.

Early life

Balda was born in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, to a Maltese mother. He studied at the

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 both ...

in the early 1990s and dropped out after two years for a job he was offered.

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 An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

''Day of the Tentacle''. He started his career as an animator by working at

, in films including ''

The Mask The Mask may refer to: Books and comics * ''The Mask'' (comics), a comic book series by publisher Dark Horse Comics * Mask (DC Comics), an opponent of Wonder Woman * ''The Mask'' (novel), a 1981 novel written by Dean Koontz under the pseudonym ...

'' as graphics animator, '' Jumanji'' as animation supervisor, and '' Mars Attacks!'' as character animator. He also worked at Weta Digital once in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

, on the 1996 film '' The Frighteners'', animating the character of the Grim Reaper for the film. Later Balda started working at

; where he was credited as an additional animator in '' A Bug's Life'', as directing animator in '' Toy Story 2'', and as animator in '' Monsters, Inc.''. In 2010, he joined Illumination Entertainment in Paris, and worked in ''

Despicable Me ''Despicable Me'' is a computer-animated media franchise centering on Gru (Despicable Me), Gru, a reformed super-villain (who later becomes a father, husband, and secret agent), and his yellow-colored Minions (Despicable Me), Minions. It is p ...

'' as the head of layout. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools. In 2012, Balda made his directorial debut at Illumination as co-director of ''

'', along with Chris Renaud. The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012 by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million. In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, '' Minions'', this time alongside Pierre Coffin. The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015, by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion. 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.

Personal life

Balda currently resides in the

Oregon coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Colum ...

Filmography

Film

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Balda, Kyle American animated film directors Living people Animators from Arizona Film directors from Arizona California Institute of the Arts alumni Pixar people Illumination (company) people American people of Maltese descent People from Tucson, Arizona 1971 births