Mark Randolph Osborne (born September 17, 1970) is an American
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...
,
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...
animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...
.
Biography
Born in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Woodstock, Vermont
Woodstock is the shire town (county seat) of Windsor County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,005. It includes the villages of Woodstock, South Woodstock, Taftsville, and West Woodstock.
History
Cha ...
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...
in New York before receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Experimental Animation from the
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
in June 1992. His thesis film, ''Greener'', won numerous awards and was screened at more than 40 film festivals worldwide. He has received two
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 ...
nominations, including one for Best Animated Feature of the year for the 2008 critically acclaimed ''
Kung Fu Panda
''Kung Fu Panda'' is an American media franchise that originally started in 2008 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, produced by DreamWorks Animation. Following the adventures of the titular Po Ping (primarily voic ...
'' which he directed alongside John Stevenson. ''Kung Fu Panda'' has netted more than $630 million worldwide to-date. The action-comedy was Osborne's first major studio project. It also won him and Stevenson the
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 Directing in an Animated Feature Production.
Osborne's other most well-known work to date, the award-winning
stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animated short ''
More
More or Mores may refer to:
Computing
* MORE (application), outline software for Mac OS
* more (command), a shell command
* MORE protocol, a routing protocol
* Missouri Research and Education Network
Music Albums
* ''More!'' (album), by Booka ...
'', has been screened at over 150 film festivals worldwide. It was the first
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.
Graeme ...
animation film to ever be nominated for an
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 ...
(1999). ''More'' garnered an
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
nomination for Best Animated Short, Special Jury Prize for Short Films at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...
(1999), The SXSW Best Animated Short (1999), the ResFest Grand Prize (1999), the Critics Week selection for CANNES (1999), among many others.
Osborne has also directed a majority of the live-action material for the popular animated TV series ''
SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...
'' featuring Patchy the Pirate, as well as all of the live action sequences for ''The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie'', featuring David Hasselhoff. He was classmates with the television show's creator,
Stephen Hillenburg
Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (August 21, 1961 – November 26, 2018) was an American animator, writer, producer, director, and marine science educator. He is known for creating the Nickelodeon animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants' ...
, while a student at CalArts. He worked as director on ''SpongeBob'' episodes such as "
The Sponge Who Could Fly
"The Sponge Who Could Fly", also known as "The ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' Lost Episode", is the 19th episode of the third season and the 59th overall episode of the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. It was written by ...
" and " SpongeBob B.C."
His other live action directing credits include his independent feature film ''Dropping Out'', which premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...
in 2000, and has developed a cult following. ''Bachelor Pad'' was also a short live-action comedy Mark made with his brother
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
along with Dylan Haggerty in the late 1980s. Parts of ''Bachelor Pad'' can be seen in the unaired second episode of ''Taterhole'', which was a spin-off of ''
The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show
''The Rudy and GoGo World Famous Cartoon Show'' was a programming block of cartoons for TNT during the mid-1990s. Hosted by "Rowdy" Rudy R. Moore (a marionette puppet of a young boy, who looked a little like Howdy Doody), and his pet goat Gogo (a ...
'' in 1997. The entire episode can be viewe here His short film ''Greener'' was broadcast on TNT's ''Rudy and GoGo's New Year's Eve Flaming Cheese Ball'' special on New Year's Eve (1995–96).
For a while, Osborne taught stop-motion at his alma mater, CalArts. He later left to pursue his professional aspirations. In 2004, Osborne was awarded the
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...
to assist in the production of another personal stop-motion short film, ''The Better Half''. Between 2010 and 2015, Osborne was directing an animated film, ''
The Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
''. In November 2016, it was reported that Osborne had been hired to direct and co-write an animated film adaptation of Jeff Smith's comic books, ''
Bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...
''.
Osborne, along with singer
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, pianist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Devon, he went to Uni ...
, wrote the story of
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University ...
's ''
Mylo Xyloto
''Mylo Xyloto'' (pronounced ) is the fifth studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released on 24 October 2011. The band worked closely with producer Brian Eno following their successful collaboration on ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His ...
''
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Some ...
, and directed the video of " Hurts Like Heaven". He wrote the first issue of the comic adaptation and still hopes to turn the album into a film.
Personal life
Osborne is the brother of TV writer and producer
Kent Osborne
Kent Matthew Osborne (born August 30, 1969) is an American screenwriter, actor, animator, producer, and director. He has worked for such animated television shows as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''Camp Lazlo'', ''Phineas and Ferb'', ''The Marvelou ...
. Osborne's son, Riley, voiced the Little Prince in the 2015 film ''
The Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
'', which was directed by Osborne.
Filmography
*''
Jurassic Park
''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
More
More or Mores may refer to:
Computing
* MORE (application), outline software for Mac OS
* more (command), a shell command
* MORE protocol, a routing protocol
* Missouri Research and Education Network
Music Albums
* ''More!'' (album), by Booka ...
SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
''The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie'' is a 2004 American live-action/animated adventure comedy film based on the Nickelodeon animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. The film was directed, co-written, and produced by series creat ...
Kung Fu Panda
''Kung Fu Panda'' is an American media franchise that originally started in 2008 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, produced by DreamWorks Animation. Following the adventures of the titular Po Ping (primarily voic ...
'' (2008) (director, voice of Pig Patron)
*'' SpongeBob SquigglePants'' (2011) (director of Patchy the Pirate cut-scenes)
*''
The Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...