James Hayward (born September 17, 1970) is a Canadian

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and

animator An animator is an artist who creates 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. Animat ...

. He has written screenplays for Columbia,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

, and

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Biography

At a young age, Hayward began his career at Mainframe Entertainment animating and directing commercials. He was one of the original animators of the television series ''

ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

'' in which he was the first animator to be hired and invited while the studio’s employees working on the series in Granville Island Hotel. He modeled the character Phong in the show. Throughout his career, he has worked at

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney S ...

and

Blue Sky Studios Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American visual effects and computer animation animation studio, studio, which was active from 1987 to 2021. It was based in Greenwich, Connecticut, and was founded on February 22, 1987, by Chris Wedge, Michael F ...

, and was an animator for ''

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and the Firsts in animation, firs ...

'', ''

A Bug's Life ''A Bug's Life'' (stylized in all lowercase) is a 1998 American animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter from a screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, Donald McEnery, and Bob Shaw, and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ran ...

'', ''

Toy Story 2 ''Toy Story 2'' is a 1999 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and the first sequel to Toy Story. It is the second installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and was directed by J ...

'', '' Monsters, Inc.'' and ''

Finding Nemo ''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from ...

''. He was the sequence director and story consultant for ''

Robots" \n\n\n\n\n\n\nrobots.txt is the filename used for implementing the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the website they are allowed to visit.\n\nThe sta ...

''. His studio directorial debut, Dr. Seuss' '' Horton Hears a Who!'' starring

Jim Carrey James Eugene Carrey (; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian and American actor and comedian. Known primarily for his energetic slapstick performances, he has received two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for BAFTA Awards and ...

and Steve Carell, had a worldwide gross of $298.6 million. Hayward's first live-action film, ''

Jonah Hex Jonah Woodson Hex is a fictional antihero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga. Hex is a surly and cynical bounty hunter whose face is scarred on the r ...

'', was released in June 2010. It succeeded on several streaming platforms for years. Hayward was also director and writer on an animated film ''

Free Birds ''Free Birds'' is a 2013 American animated Thanksgiving science fiction film, science fiction comedy film directed by Jimmy Hayward, who co-wrote the screenplay with the film's producer Scott Mosier. The film stars the voices of Owen Wilson, Wo ...

'', starring

Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor. He first became known for his role as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1985–1993), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...

, Owen Wilson and Amy Poehler, which was released in 2013. The film was a financial success, grossing over $110 million. In April 2023, a benefit for Hayward was put together to help pay medical bills in relation to a bone cancer diagnosis. While in cancer treatment, Hayward directed projects with world renowned bands like Primus and

Tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...

. After surviving multiple surgeries and radiation, Hayward was declared cancer free.

Filmography

Animator

Voice roles

Director

Other credits

References

External links

* 1970 births Blue Sky Studios people Canadian animated film directors Canadian guitarists Film directors from Ontario Canadian male screenwriters Living people Writers from Kingston, Ontario Pixar people 21st-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers Screenwriters from Ontario {{Canada-animator-stub