John Stevenson (director)

John Stevenson
John Stevenson in May 2009 at the X Media Lab's "Wealth of Animation" event in Suzhou, China
Born	John Stevenson 1958 (age 58–59) United Kingdom
Occupation	Film Director, Storyboard Artist, Animator, Art Director, Puppeteer, Motion Capture Performer, Voice Actor
Years active	1978 - Present

John Stevenson (born 1958) is a British animation filmmaker and puppeteer best known for directing the 2008 animated feature film, Kung Fu Panda with Mark Osborne. Stevenson has over 30 years of experience with animation, a veteran of DreamWorks PDI who got his start in the entertainment industry via Jim Henson's The Muppet Show.

He worked as a story artist on the feature films The Great Muppet Caper, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and Little Shop of Horrors and as a character designer and story artist on shows and films like The Dreamstone, Count Duckula, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, two of the Fox Tales specials and FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue. He also worked as an art director on Back to the Future: The Animated Series and a puppeteer on James & the Giant Peach and Motion Capture Performer on The Moxy Pirate Show. In 1991, Stevenson moved to the United States, and in 1998 he was hired as a head of story at DreamWorks Animation. There he worked for many years in the art department on many films such as Shrek, Shrek 2, Madagascar and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, before helming a number of episodes of their animated primetime show Father of the Pride. He worked for four years bringing Kung Fu Panda to the screen.