John Lasseter

His mother, Jewell Mae (née Risley; 1918–2005), was an art teacher at Bell Gardens High School, and his father, Paul Eual Lasseter (1924–2011), was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership.

Lasseter is a fraternal twin; his sister Johanna Lasseter-Curtis, who became a baker based in the Lake Tahoe area, is six minutes older.

Lasseter grew up in Whittier, California.

His mother's profession contributed to his growing preoccupation with animation.

He often drew cartoons during church services at the Church of Christ church his family attended.

As a child, Lasseter would race home from school to watch Chuck Jones cartoons on television.

While in high school, he read The Art of Animation by Bob Thomas.

John Alan Lasseter (born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, and animator.

John Alan Lasseter was born on January 12, 1957, in Hollywood, California.

The book covered the history of Disney animation and explored the making of Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, which made Lasseter realize he wanted to do animation himself.

However, Lasseter soon felt that something was missing: after 101 Dalmatians (1961), which in his opinion was the film where Disney had reached its highest plateau, he felt that the studio had lost momentum and was often repeating itself.

When he saw Disney's 1963 film The Sword in the Stone, he finally made the decision that he should become an animator.

He then read Preston Blair's book about animation, and made flipbooks based on Blair's walk cycles.

One of his friends had a Super 8 camera that shot single frames, which was used to shoot some of his earlier animation efforts.

Lasseter heard of a new character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts (often abbreviated as 'CalArts') and decided to follow his dream of becoming an animator.

The studio had reviewed approximately 10,000 portfolios in the late 1970s in search of talent, then selected only about 150 candidates as apprentices, of which only about 45 were kept on permanently.

His mother further encouraged him to take up a career in animation, and in 1975 he enrolled as the second student (Jerry Rees was the first) in the CalArts Character Animation program created by Disney animators Jack Hannah and T. Hee.

Lasseter was taught by three members of Disney's Nine Old Men team of veteran animators—Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—and his classmates included future animators and directors like Brad Bird, John Musker, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, and Chris Buck.

During his time there, he produced two animated shorts—Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980)—which each won the student Academy Award for Animation.

While at CalArts, Lasseter first started working for the Walt Disney Company at Disneyland in Anaheim during summer breaks and got a job as a Jungle Cruise skipper, where he learned the basics of comedy and comic timing to entertain captive audiences on the ride.

Upon graduating in 1979, Lasseter immediately obtained a job as an animator at Walt Disney Productions mostly due to his success with his student project, Lady and the Lamp.

In the fall of 1979, Disney animator Mel Shaw told the Los Angeles Times that "John's got an instinctive feel for character and movement and shows every indication of blossoming here at our studios ... In time, he'll make a fine contribution."

At that same time, Lasseter worked on a sequence titled "The Emperor and the Nightingale" (based on The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen) for a Disney project called Musicana.

The Graphics Group of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and became Pixar in 1986.

Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects.

He personally directed Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cars (2006), and Cars 2 (2011), and executive-produced all other Pixar films through 2018.

Musicana was never released but eventually led to the development of Fantasia 2000 (1999).

From 2006 to 2018, Lasseter also oversaw all of Walt Disney Animation Studios' (and its division Disneytoon Studios') films and associated projects as executive producer.

His works have grossed more than US$19 billion, making him one of the most financially successful filmmakers of all time.

Of the eight animated films that have grossed over US$1 billion, five of them were executive produced by Lasseter: Toy Story 3 (2010)—the first animated film to surpass $1 billion—and Frozen (2013)—the third-highest-grossing animated film of all time—as well as Zootopia (2016), Finding Dory (2016), and Incredibles 2 (2018).

In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month sabbatical from Pixar and Disney Animation after acknowledging what he called "missteps" in his behavior with employees.

According to various news outlets, Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct toward employees.

In June 2018, Disney announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year when his contract expired; he took on a consulting role until then.

Following his departure from Disney and Pixar, Lasseter was later hired by Skydance founder David Ellison to run the animation division Skydance Animation.

He has served as the Head of Animation at Skydance Animation since 2019.

Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Lasseter began his career as an animator with The Walt Disney Company.

After being fired from Disney for promoting computer animation, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on then-groundbreaking usage of CGI animation.

Frozen also held the title of the highest-grossing animated film of all time until 2019, and was the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time at the end of its theatrical run.

He has won two Academy Awards, for Best Animated Short Film (for Tin Toy), as well as a Special Achievement Award (for Toy Story).