Pierre-Louis Padang Coffin (born 16 March 1967) is a French animator, voice actor, director, producer, and writer best known for co-directing four films in the ''Despicable Me'' franchise and being the voice of the Minions, which won him the Kids Family Award at the

10th Seiyu Awards The 10th Seiyu Awards was held on March 12, 2016 at the JOQR Media Plus Hall in Minato, Tokyo. First Group The winners of the first group were announced on the ceremony day. 2nd Group The winners of the Merit/Achievement Awards, the Synergy Aw ...

Life and career

Coffin was born on 16 March 1967 in France to Yves Coffin, a French

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...

, and Nh. Dini, an Indonesian novelist. He has a sister, Marie-Claire. During his childhood, they often moved across Asia, living in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, before settling in a Parisian suburb in the 1970s. Growing up, their father forbade them watching television, considering it too passive. Instead, Coffin drew, read, and listened to music a lot. Although he never considered a career in arts, some talented friends, who were better than him at drawing, inspired him to improve his skills. Between 1985 and 1988, he studied cinema at the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; french: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) was a public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universit ...

. While attending his military service, he withdrew to take the entrance exam for the Gobelins animation school in Paris. Passing, he studied there the 2D course from 1990 to 1993. Then he moved to

Amblin Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy (producer), Kathlee ...

, the 2D London-based facility, where he worked for one year as a junior animator on the

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

-executive-produced '' We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story''. He then started as a freelance animator in the French CGI studio Ex Machina where he worked as an animator and eventually animation supervisor. Pierre Coffin's directorial career began with a short film named ''Pings'' in 1997. He then started to collaborate by doing commercials with Passion Pictures Paris and

Mac Guff Mac Guff (also known as Mac Guff Ligne) is a French visual effects company based in both Los Angeles, United States and Paris, France, where it is headquartered. Mac Guff specializes in the creation of computer graphics for commercials, music vid ...

. He created the characters '' Pat & Stan'' for the titular TF1 TV series. In 2010 he completed, with

Chris Renaud Chris Renaud (born December 1966) is an American film producer, director, illustrator, designer, animator, and voice actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the 2006 animated short ''No Time for Nuts'', which featured the character Scrat ...

, the feature CGI animated movie ''

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 ...

'' for Universal. Coffin directed ''

'' and ''

Despicable Me 2 ''Despicable Me 2'' is a 2013 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to ''Despicable Me'' (2010), it is directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, and ...

'', with Renaud, ''

Despicable Me 3 ''Despicable Me 3'' is a 2017 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Despicable Me 2'' (2013), the third main installment, and the fourth installment overall ...

'' and the ''Despicable Me'' spin-off, '' Minions'' with

Kyle Balda Kyle Balda (born March 9, 1971) is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films ''The Lorax'' (2012), with Chris Renaud; '' Minions'' (2015), with Pierre Coffin; and '' Minions: The Rise of Gru'' ( ...

. In which he also served as the voice of various Minions. Coffin recorded several different dubs of the Minion voices for ''Minions'' in order to better appeal to different national markets, mixing in varying local words depending on the country.

Personal life

Coffin has two children.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coffin, Pierre 1967 births Living people French film directors French male voice actors French animators French animated film directors French people of Bugis descent French people of Indonesian descent Indo people Bugis people Javanese people Illumination (company) people