Kyle Balda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Animator
- film director
Kyle Balda | |
|---|---|
 Balda in 2015 | |
| Born | March 9, 1971 Tucson, Arizona, U.S. |
| Alma mater | California Institute of the Arts |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Employers |
|
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) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), 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 before moving to Pixar where he worked on three of their films.
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 (ILM), in films including The Mask as graphics animator, Jumanji as animation supervisor, and Mars Attacks! as character animator.[2] He also worked at Weta Digital once in New Zealand, on the 1996 film The Frighteners, animating the character of the Grim Reaper for the film.[2] Later, Balda started working at Pixar; 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..[2] He would later join French studio Mac Guff Ligne where he would work closely with Pierre Coffin on commercials and TV shows, as an animator or co-director.[5] This collaboration would lead to him becoming head of layout on Despicable Me. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools.[2]
In 2012, Balda made his directorial debut at Illumination as co-director of The Lorax, along with Chris Renaud.[3][6] The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012, by Universal Pictures and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million.[7]
In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, Minions, this time alongside Pierre Coffin.[6][8][9] The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015, by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion.[10]
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.[11]
On June 7, 2024, it was announced Balda would make his live-action directorial debut with The Sheep Detectives, a film adaptation of Leonie Swann's book Three Bags Full, set to be produced by Amazon MGM Studios.[12]
Personal life
Balda currently resides in the Oregon coast.[13]
