Dan Scanlon

Scanlon grew up in Clawson, Michigan.^[5] When he was one year old and his brother three years old, their father died, and when they were teenagers, a relative gave them a brief audio recording of their father. Scanlon has said that these experiences helped inspire the story of Onward.^[6] He graduated with a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1998.

Scanlon was an animator for The Indescribable Nth and Joseph: King of Dreams. He served as a storyboard artist for The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure.^[3]

Scanlon joined Pixar in 2001,^[3] where he was a story artist for Cars and Toy Story 3. He co-directed the short film Mater and the Ghostlight.^[3] He illustrated part one of Unmentionables, a comic book written by his wife, Michele Scanlon, and wrote and directed the live-action feature film Tracy.^[7] Tracy was Scanlon's first feature film as a writer/director. He also served as a member of the senior creative team on Brave and Inside Out.

Scanlon directed the prequel film of Monsters, Inc., Monsters University, released in 2013, to positive reviews and commercial success. He subsequently directed the fantasy-road trip film Onward (2020),^[6] featuring the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer.^[8] It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to another Pixar film Soul.^[9]

In February 2021, Scanlon stated that he and Kori Rae would develop another original Pixar feature film.^[10] In November 2024, Scanlon stated he was leaving Pixar, but would not be against working with the company in a consultancy role in the future.^[11][12][13]