Cinco Paul | |
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Born |
Phoenix, Arizona |
May 5, 1964
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Yale University, USC School of Cinematic Arts |
Occupation | Screenplay writer |
Notable work | Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, Despicable Me, Hop, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Despicable Me 2 |
Children | 3 |
Ken Daurio | |
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Born | 1971/1972 (age 44–45) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Screenplay writer |
Notable work | Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, Despicable Me, Hop, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Despicable Me 2 |
Children | 3 |
Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio are American screenwriters. They are primarily known for writing screenplays for animated films, including Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, Despicable Me, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, and Despicable Me 2.
Paul was named after Cinco de Mayo, a celebration held on his birthday. After graduating from Yale University, Paul served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tokyo. Shortly after returning from his mission he married his wife who he had met at Yale and got engaged to just before leaving on his mission. He then won a short film competition and received a fellowship at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he graduated in 1993 from the Graduate Screenwriting Program. Next year, he sold his first screenplay to Columbia Pictures.
Daurio started making films with a Super 8 camera at age 9. After high school, he began directing music videos and directed more than 100 videos.
Paul and Daurio have been collaborating since 1999. They met when Paul wrote a musical for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' 150-year celebration of the pioneers' arrival in Utah, in which Daurio had one of the leads. Hitting it off, having similar senses of humor, they formed a band called the Otter Pops, playing at local outdoor malls. Within a year they sold their first script, and a year later their second script, Bubble Boy, was made into a film, which was a critical and commercial failure. To get noticed, they used to sing story pitches to film producers. Although not always successful, this strategy resulted in several produced films, including Bubble Boy (2001) and College Road Trip (2008). They were personally chosen by Audrey Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, to write an computer-animated feature film adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! for 20th Century Fox Animation, led by Chris Meledandri. In 2007, when Meledandri founded a film production company named Illumination Entertainment, Paul and Daurio followed him. At Illumination, they wrote screenplays for the highly-successful animated film Despicable Me, and its sequel, Despicable Me 2. They also wrote for Illumination's other films, the animated/live action Easter-themed Hop, and adapted another Dr. Seuss book into a computer-animated film, The Lorax.