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) 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.
Kyle Balda
March 9, 1971
- Animator
- film director
1994–present
Pixar Animation Studios (1996-2002)
Illumination (2010—present)
Early life[edit]
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[edit]
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, 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] In 2010, he joined Illumination Entertainment in Paris, and worked in Despicable Me as the head of layout. 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][5] The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012, by Universal Pictures and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million.[6]
In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, Minions, this time alongside Pierre Coffin.[5][7][8] The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015, by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion.[9]
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.[10]
Personal life[edit]
Balda currently resides in the Oregon coast.[11]