ANDREW STANTON (Director/Screenwriter/Vice President, Creative, Pixar Animation Studios)

ANDREW STANTON (Director/Screenwriter/Vice President, Creative, Pixar Animation Studios) has been a major creative force at Pixar Animation Studios since 1990, when he became the second animator and ninth employee to join the company’s elite group of computer animation pioneers. As Vice President, Creative, he currently leads the initiatives of and oversees all features and shorts development of the Studio.

Stanton made his directorial debut with the record-shattering “Finding Nemo,” an original story of his that he also co-wrote. The film garnered Stanton two Academy Award® nominations (Best Original Screenplay & Best Animated Film), and “Finding Nemo” was awarded an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of 2003, the first such honor Pixar Animation Studios has received for a full-length feature.

Stanton was one of the four screenwriters to receive an Oscar® nomination in 1996 for his contribution to “Toy Story” and went on to receive credit as a screenwriter on every subsequent Pixar film – “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.” and “Finding Nemo.” Additionally, he served as co-director on “A Bug’s Life,” and was the executive producer of “Monsters, Inc.” and the 2006 Academy Award-winning “Ratatouille.”

A native of Rockport, Mass., Stanton earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Character Animation from California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), where he completed two student films. In the 1980s, he launched his professional career in Los Angeles animating for Bill Kroyer’s Kroyer Films studio, and writing for Ralph Bakshi’s production of “Mighty Mouse, The New Adventures.”