Steven MacLeod

MacLeod studied at the California Institute of the Arts. After his first year, he took a three-year break from CalArts in the early 2000s to become a missionary in Brazil, and eventually graduated from CalArts in 2007.^[1]

After graduation, MacLeod was immediately accepted by DreamWorks Animation in 2007 for its story training program as ran by animator Jeff Snow.^[2] After spending three months in the program,^[1] MacLeod began work as a storyboard artist for Chris Sanders' then-upcoming film The Croods as his first project, wherein he was placed in charge of character creation.^[3][4] MacLeod also served as a story artist for How to Train Your Dragon (2010) for 11 months^[1] when Sanders became its director,^[3] and afterwards returned to storyboarding for The Croods until as late as October 2012.^[4] After The Croods premiered in February 2013, MacLeod began storyboarding for Me and My Shadow, a project conceptualized by filmmaker Edgar Wright, but the film did not come to fruition.^[1][5]

In the late 2010s, MacLeod served as the head of story for the Netflix animated film Over the Moon, directed by former Disney animator Glen Keane,^[6] and by 2024, became head of story for the DreamWorks project Forgotten Island (2026).^[7]

MacLeod's first child, a daughter, was born in 2007.^[4] MacLeod is partially of Filipino ethnicity from his mother Luisa.^[7]