Brad Bird

Branden Bird (his full name) was born on September 24, 1957 in Kalispell, a small town located in northwestern Montana (United States). At eleven years old, he began shooting his first film, which he would finish at fourteen, thus showing great drawing skills, skills that he honed by continuing his studies at the California Institute of the Arts. In this place he met the one who would be his friend and one of the people he would work for, the co-founder of Pixar John Lasseter. Furthermore, at this stage he would also meet director Tim Burton with whom he was also destined to collaborate. He has been married since 1988 to Elizabeth Canney, with whom he has 3 children.

After completing his studies, his first job was as an animator in the film produced by Lisberger Studios Animalympics, a satire of the summer and winter Olympic games (1980). His next job was as animation producer of Tod and Toby (1981), a film that at the time was Disney’s most expensive. He continued his animating career working with Martin Rosen on The Plague Dogs (1982).

In 1987 he began his journey as a director and screenwriter with Family Dog , produced hand in hand with his friend Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg. The series is about a family, the Binsfords, whose story is told through the eyes of their dog. It was born as an episode of the second season of Amazing Tales, and later gave rise to his own series.

Before taking the plunge into directing features, Bird helped develop The Simpsons series . Considered one of the pivotal talents of the early phase of this project, he served as a creative consultant for many years, directing several memorable episodes such as Do the Bartman.

After more than two decades dedicated to animation, Warner Bros. produced its first feature film, The Iron Giant , based on the book of the same name by Ted Hughes. Released in 1999, it was very well received by critics, being rewarded with nine Annie Awards. Conversely, it was not as successful at the box office where it was a flop, largely due to little Warner promotion of it.

At the beginning of 2000, and despite the poor reception of his first film, he was hired by Pixar, when the company was at its highest thanks to the success of Toy Story . There he continued a project he had started at Warners, which resulted in The Incredibles . This film that deals with a family of superheroes, was a milestone in animation. To carry it out, Bird assembled a team capable of inventing new techniques to solve the complications involved in creating human characters, elements such as water or the large number of scenarios that his project had. Thanks to this film, he got his first Oscar for best animated film in 2004. Taking advantage of the success of The Incredibles , the director continued withAttack of Jack Jack , a small five-minute spin-off that explained how the baby, Jack Jack, got his powers.

In 2007 Bird took over Ratatouille , which tells the story of a rat who dreams of becoming a chef. For this film he would get a second Oscar for best animated film.

Although he has dedicated his entire life to animation, in 2011 he directed his first live-action film, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol . In it, he does a very careful job to offer the viewer first-class entertainment, demonstrating his great directing skills. Later in 2015, he released his second non-animated film, Tomorrowland: Tomorrowland , in which he once again worked with Walt Disney.