Kyle Balda

Kyle Balda
Born	Tucson, Arizona
Residence	Paris, France
Nationality	American
Occupation	Animator, film director
Years active	1994–present
Notable work	Minions

Kyle Balda is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the animated films The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud, and Minions (2015), with Pierre Coffin. He has also worked as animator on several films including Jumanji, Toy Story 2, and Despicable Me. He has worked for Pixar for years and now he is working for Illumination Entertainment.

Balda was born in Tucson, Arizona, to a Maltese mother. He [graduated] from California Institute of the Arts in the early 1990s and [dropped out] after two years for a job he was offered. Balda is currently living in Paris.

He started his career as an animator by working at Industrial Light & Magic, in the films including 1994's The Mask as graphics animator, 1995's Jumanji as animation supervisor, and in 1996's Mars Attacks! as character animator. He also worked at Weta Digital once in New Zealand, on the 1996 film The Frighteners, he animated the Grim Reaper for the film. Later Balda started working at Pixar, and his works included 1998's A Bug's Life as an additional animator, 1999's Toy Story 2 as the directing animator, and 2001's Monsters, Inc. as animator. In 2010, he joined the Illumination Entertainment in Paris, and worked in the 2010s Despicable Me as the head of layout. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools.

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