PETER LORD (Producer)

PETER LORD (Producer) is co-owner and Creative Director of Aardman, which he co-founded with his longtime collaborator David Sproxton in 1972. As a director, Lord has been honored with two Academy Award® nominations for Best Animated Short, the first in 1992 for “Adam,” and again in 1996 for “Wat’s Pig.” He has also earned BAFTA nominations for “Adam,” “The Amazing Adventures of Morph” and “War Story.”
In 2000, Lord directed and produced Aardman’s first full-length feature, DreamWorks Animation’s “Chicken Run,” starring the voice of Mel Gibson, which was a commercial and critical smash.

Lord first met David Sproxton in the early 1970s at school, where they started experimenting with animation techniques on their kitchen table. They tried a range of methods before settling on clay model animation. While they were still in their teens, a BBC children’s television producer offered them the chance to make short animated films for his program “Vision On.” Their first character as professionals was Morph, who later starred in his own series “The Amazing Adventures of Morph.” As a testament to Morph’s enduring appeal, he still appears in new productions today.
Moving to Bristol in 1976, Lord and Sproxton built Aardman into one of the world’s leading model animation studios. In 1978, Aardman was commissioned by BBC Bristol to make two short films entitled “Animated Conversations.” The resulting “Down and Out” and “Confessions of a Foyer Girl,” both co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, broke new ground in animation by using recordings of real-life conversations. That led to a series of five “Conversation Pieces” for England’s Channel 4, all of which were co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, including “Early Bird” and “On Probation.”

Expanding into music videos, Aardman collaborated with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create Peter Gabriel’s award-winning video for “Sledgehammer.” In 1987, Lord created the video for Nina Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” Two years later, Channel 4 again commissioned Aardman to create the five-picture “Lip Synch” series, which included Lord’s “War Story.” Lord’s other directing credits include “Going Equipped” and “Babylon.”

Together with Sproxton, Lord has also played a major role in encouraging and promoting new directors. His executive producer credits with Aardman include “Creature Comforts,” “Rex,” “HumDrum” and “Stage Fright.”

Aardman’s special brand of animation has also been seen in commercials for such products as Chevron, Lurpack, Mita Copiers, Cadbury’s Crunchies and Polo.