Brad Bird

Brad Bird
Bird at the Venice Film Festival, September 2009
Born	Phillip Bradley Bird (1957-09-24) September 24, 1957 (age 59) Kalispell, Montana, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Corvallis High School
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Occupation	Director, screenwriter, animator, producer, voice actor
Years active	1979–present
Notable work	The Iron Giant The Incredibles Ratatouille Tomorrowland
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Canney (m. 1988)
Children	3

Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor, known for both animated and live-action films.

Bird developed a love for the art of animation at an early age and was mentored by Milt Kahl, one of Disney's legendary Nine Old Men. He was part of one of the earliest graduating classes of the California Institute of the Arts alongside John Lasseter and Tim Burton. Afterwards, Bird worked as an animator for Disney and wrote the screenplay for Batteries Not Included (1987). Bird served as a creative consultant on The Simpsons during its first eight seasons, where he helped develop the show's animation style. Afterwards, Bird left to direct his first animated feature, The Iron Giant (1999), which fared poorly at the box office but came to be regarded as a modern animated classic. He rejoined Lasseter at Pixar in 2000, where he would develop his second picture, The Incredibles (2004), and his third picture, Ratatouille (2007). Both films place among Pixar's highest-grossing features and gave Bird two Academy Award for Best Animated Feature wins and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nominations.

In 2011, Bird transitioned to live-action filmmaking with , which became the highest-grossing and best reviewed film of its franchise. His latest film, Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney, was released in May 2015.

Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in the propane business, and his grandfather, Francis Wesley "Frank" Bird, who was born in County Sligo, Ireland, was a president and chief executive of the Montana Power Company. On a tour of the Walt Disney Studios at age 11, he announced that someday he would become part of its animation team, and soon afterward began work on his own 15-minute animated short. Within two years, Bird had completed his animation, which impressed the cartoon company. By age 14, barely in high school, Bird was mentored by the animator Milt Kahl, one of Disney's legendary Nine Old Men. Bird recalls Kahl's criticisms as ideal: Kahl would point out shortcomings by gently delivering thoughts on where Bird could improve. After graduating from Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Oregon in 1975, Bird took a three-year break. He was then awarded a scholarship by Disney to attend California Institute of the Arts, where he met and befriended another future animator, Pixar co-founder and director John Lasseter.