Byron P. Howard (born December 26, 1968) is an American animator, character designer, story artist, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as the director of the

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fr ...

films '' Bolt'' (2008), ''

Tangled ''Tangled'' is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated musical adventure fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on the German fairy tale ''Rapunzel'' in the collection of ...

'' (2010), ''

Zootopia ''Zootopia'' (titled ''Zootropolis'' in various regions) is a 2016 American computer-animated buddy cop action comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 55th Disney animated feature fi ...

'' (2016), and '' Encanto'' (2021). He is the first LGBT director to win Best Animated Feature twice for his work of ''Zootopia'' and ''Encanto''.

Early life and education

Howard was born in

Misawa, Japan is a city located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 39,093, and a population density of 330 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Misawa is the location of a large military base, Misawa Air Base, ...

, and raised in both the outskirts of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

and

Issaquah, Washington Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the " Issaquah Al ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, in a middle-class family. He attended

Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

. Ally Sikora
"A long, drawn-out process,"
'' St. Petersburg Times'', September 15, 2003.

Career

Howard began his career at Disney as a tour guide at Disney MGM Studios. Howard had dreamed of working for Disney, and had written to Master Animator Frank Thomas, one of

Disney's Nine Old Men Disney's Nine Old Men were Walt Disney Productions' core animators, some of whom later became directors, who created some of Disney's most famous animated cartoons, from ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (1937) onward to ''The Rescuers'' (1977) ...

, as he was growing up. He soon began the Disney Studio Internship and was hired in 1994, working as an animator on films including ''

Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...

'', '' Mulan'', ''

Lilo & Stitch ''Lilo & Stitch'' is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 42nd Disney animated feature film, it was written and directed by Chris Sande ...

'' and ''

Brother Bear ''Brother Bear'' is a 2003 American animated musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 44th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert ...

''. He was nominated for a 2003

Annie Award The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally de ...

for Character Animation for ''Brother Bear''. The first film Howard directed was the animated Disney film '' Bolt'', which was nominated for the 2008

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for animated films. An animated feature is defined by the Academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by- ...

.Ellen Wolff
"Animated Oscar noms took long road,"
''Variety'', February 5, 2009. In his role as co-director of the film with Chris Williams, Howard focused on character design and animation. Howard went on to direct the animated Disney films ''

'' (2010, co-directed with

Nathan Greno Nathan Greno (born March 22, 1975) is an American film director, story artist, and writer best known as the co-director of the 2010 animated film ''Tangled.'' Inspired by Disney films since the first grade, Greno started as a young boy writing a ...

) and ''

'' (2016, co-directed with

Rich Moore Rich Moore is an American film and television animation director, screenwriter and voice actor. He has directed the films ''Wreck-It Ralph'' (2012) and co-directed ''Zootopia'' (2016) and ''Ralph Breaks the Internet'' (2018) for Walt Disney A ...

). He and Greno also co-directed and wrote the animated short ''

Tangled Ever After ''Tangled Ever After'' is a 2012 six-minute American computer animated 3D short film written and directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. It is a sequel to the 2010 Walt Disney Animation Studios film ''Tangled''. It premiered in theaters on Janua ...

'', which features supporting characters from ''Tangled'' and showed in theaters before the 2012 3D re-release of ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...

''. After ''Zootopia'', Howard worked with

Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ''Hamilton'' (2015) and '' In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animat ...

on ''Encanto''. Howard co-directed the film, alongside ''Zootopia'' co-director

Jared Bush Jared Bush (born June 12, 1974) is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He is best known for co-directing and co-writing the Walt Disney Animation Studios film ''Zootopia'' (2016), writing the film '' Moana'' (2016) and directing and ...

and

Charise Castro Smith Charise Castro Smith (born August 30, 1983) is an American playwright, actress, screenwriter, producer, and co-director. Personal life Castro Smith is from Miami, Florida, where she was raised in a Cuban American family. She attended Brown Un ...

, while Miranda wrote songs for the project, which centered on a girl from a magical Colombian family who lacks magic herself. In 2009, Howard became a member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

Personal life

In the

Fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

documentary ''Imagining Zootopia'', Howard mentioned he is openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

and has been married since 1988.

Filmography

Feature Films

Short films

Awards

;

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

* 2008 – Nominated:

Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film is a Golden Globe Award that was awarded for the first time at the 64th Golden Globe Awards in 2007. It was the first time that the Golden Globe Awards had created a separate category for anima ...

for '' Bolt'' * 2010 – Nominated:

for ''

''Justin Kroll and Rachel Abrams
"Golden Globe Nomination Reactions"
''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', December 14, 2010. * 2017 – Won:

for ''

'' * 2021 – Won:

for '' Encanto'' ;

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

* 2008 – Nominated:

for '' Bolt'' * 2017 – Won:

for ''

'' * 2021 – Won:

for'' Encanto''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Byron 1968 births American animators American film directors Living people Walt Disney Animation Studios people LGBT animators American animated film directors American gay writers LGBT screenwriters American male screenwriters American male voice actors Evergreen State College alumni Directors of Best Animated Feature Academy Award winners Artists from Aomori Prefecture LGBT film directors

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

Filmography

Feature Films

Short films

Awards

See also

References

External links