PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: animation
American writer and illustrator
Dr. Seuss was an American writer and illustrator of immensely popular childrenâs books noted for their nonsense words, playful rhymes, and unusual creatures. After graduating from Dartmouth College (B.A.,...
American film producer
Walt Disney was an American motion-picture and television producer and showman, famous as a pioneer of animated cartoon films and as the creator of such cartoon characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck....
American animator
Chuck Jones was an American animation director of critically acclaimed cartoon shorts, primarily the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies film series at Warner Bros. studios. To the general public, Chuck Jonesâs...
American artist, art director, and designer
Mary Blair was an American artist, art director, and designer known for her colorful and modern illustrations that helped define the visual style of Disneyâs classic animated movies, including Cinderella...
American cartoonist, writer, and director
Frank Tashlin was an American cartoonist, writer, animator, and film director who specialized in broad satirical comedies. Tashlin directed his animated cartoons like live-action filmsâemploying a wide...
Japanese director
Miyazaki Hayao is an influential Japanese anime director whose lyrical and allusive works have won both critical and popular acclaim. His notable films include Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001),...
Japanese animator and film director
Anno Hideaki is a Japanese animator and film director best known for his mature and experimental anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995â96). From a young age, Anno was interested in the subjects that...
American comic book writer and animated-film producer
Dwayne McDuffie was an American comic book writer and animated-film producer who cofounded Milestone Media, an imprint of DC Comics promoting the work of minority creators. Throughout his career he worked...
American animator
Otto Messmer was an American animator who created the character Felix the Cat, the worldâs most popular cartoon star before Mickey Mouse. The attribution has been questioned by some, in part because of...
Iranian artist and writer
Marjane Satrapi was an Iranian artist, director, and writer whose graphic novels explore the gaps and junctures between Iran and the West. She lived in Paris. Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran, in 1969....
Czech artist, puppeteer, animator, and filmmaker
Jan Ć vankmajer is a Czech Surrealist artist, puppeteer, animator, and filmmaker known for his dark reimaginings of well-known fairy tales and for his avant-garde use of three-dimensional stop-motion coupled...
American screenwriter, actor, and producer
Trey Parker is an American screenwriter, actor, and producer, best known as the cocreator, with Matt Stone, of the subversive animated comedy series South Park (1997â ) and the Tony Award-winning musical...
American director
Terry Gilliam is an American-born director, writer, comedian, and actor who first achieved fame as a member of the British comedy troupe Monty Python. While a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles,...
American screenwriter, actor, and producer
Matt Stone is an American screenwriter, actor, and producer who was best known as the cocreator, with Trey Parker, of the subversive animated television series South Park (1997â ). Together with songwriter...
American animator, writer, and director
Mike Judge is an American animator, writer, director, and producer who was one of the foremost satirists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Judge was born in Ecuador to an archaeologist father...
American writer, animator, actor, and producer
Seth MacFarlane is an American writer, animator, actor, and producer who was perhaps best known for creating the television series Family Guy (1999â2003, 2005â ), American Dad (2005â ), The Cleveland Show...
American director
Tex Avery was an influential American director of animated cartoons, primarily for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios. (Read Martin Scorseseâs Britannica essay on film preservation.)...
American animator
John Lasseter is an American animator widely credited with engineering the success of Pixar Animation Studios through a synthesis of cutting-edge computer animation and classic storytelling. He is best...
American writer and illustrator
Edward Gorey was an American writer, illustrator, and designer, noted for his arch humor and gothic sensibility. Gorey drew a pen-and-ink world of beady-eyed, blank-faced individuals whose dignified Edwardian...
American cartoonist and animator
Matt Groening is an American cartoonist and animator who created the comic strip Life in Hell (1980â2012) and the television series The Simpsons (1989â ) and Futurama (1999â2003, 2010â13). Groening began...
Hungarian-born animator, director, and producer
George Pal was a Hungarian-born animator, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the science-fiction genre, especially noted for his work with special effects. He also created Puppetoons,...
American filmmaker
Ray Harryhausen was an American filmmaker best known for his pioneering use of stop-motion animation effects. Harryhausen grew up in Los Angeles, acquiring a love of dinosaurs and fantasy at a young age....
American animator
William Hanna was an American animator who, as part of the team of Hanna and Barbera, created popular cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo. Hanna had dropped out of...
American animator and special-effects technician
Ub Iwerks was an American animator and special-effects technician who, among many other achievements, brought the world-renowned cartoon character Mickey Mouse to life. Iwerks was the son of an immigrant...
American director
Robert Clampett was one of the top directors at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio and the creator of the Beany and Cecil television series. Clampett joined Leon Schlesingerâs fledgling animation unit on...
American animator
Winsor McCay was an American newspaper cartoonist who was also a pioneer of animated films. At age 21, McCay started working as a poster and billboard artist for a Chicago company. In 1904, after working...
South African artist and filmmaker
William Kentridge is a South African graphic artist, filmmaker, and theatre arts activist especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The pungent humanism...
British animator, writer, producer, and director
Nick Park is a British animator and director of stop-motion films that often feature his characters Wallace and Gromit. Park demonstrated an early ability to draw, and by age 13 he was animating his cartoon...
American animator
Joseph Barbera was an American animator who, as part of the team of Hanna and Barbera, created popular cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Yogi Bear, and Scooby-Doo....
American animator
Walter Lantz was an American motion-picture animator, cartoon producer, and creator of the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. At age 16, Lantz worked as a newspaper cartoonist and began experimenting...
French animator
Alexandre AlexeĂŻeff was a Russian-born French filmmaker who invented the pinscreen method of animation with his collaborator (later his wife), the animator Claire Parker (1910â81). AlexeĂŻeff spent his...
Czech filmmaker
JiĆĂ Trnka was a preeminent filmmaker of the Czech puppet animation tradition who was also a painter, designer, cartoonist, and book illustrator. Trnka, who was trained as a painter in art school, won...
American animator
Friz Freleng was an American animator of more than 300 cartoons, primarily for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies film series at Warner Bros. Freleng joined Warner Bros. studios as head animator in 1930,...
American film director
J. Stuart Blackton was a British-born U.S. film director and producer who introduced animation and other important film techniques that helped shape and stimulate the development of cinematic art. While...