Bruce W. Smith

Bruce Wayne Smith (born September 6, 1961 in Los Angeles, California) is an American character animator, film director, and television producer. He was the creator of Disney Channel's The Proud Family, as well as the supervising animator of Kerchak in Tarzan, Pacha in The Emperor's New Groove, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, and Piglet, Kanga, and Roo in Winnie the Pooh.
Smith studied animation in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. He joined the Walt Disney Studios an animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and various other Roger Rabbit shorts that the studio produced. Soon after, Smith was handpicked by producer/director Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang) to direct the Paramount Pictures animated film Bébé's Kids.
Smith also served as co-director on the Warner Bros. live action/animated film Space Jam before returning to Disney as supervising animator on such films as Tarzan (Kerchak and Baboons) and Emperors New Groove (Pacha).
While working animation on the feature film side, Smith started feeding into his love of television animation and created The Proud Family for the Disney Channel. He co-founded Jambalaya Studio for the production of the series and crafted over 50 episodes of the hit series along with The Proud Family TV movie. Smith then rejoined the Walt Disney Studios and Duncan Studio Production to supervise animation on The Princess and the Frog (Dr. Facilier) and the Winnie the Pooh Movie (Piglet, Kanga and Roo) and as the lead animator on the short Tangled Ever After. Smith's knack for unique character design led him into the visual development of other projects at the studio such as Wreck-it-Ralph and Frozen.
Smith grew up in Los Angeles, California.
== Filmography ==
Year 	Title 	Credits 	Characters
1984 	Garfield in the Rough(TV Short) 	Key assistant animator 	
1985 	ThunderCats (TV Series) 	Writer - 2 Episodes 	
1986 	SilverHawks (TV Series) 	Writer - 5 Episodes 	
1987 	Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night 	Animator 	
1988 	Who Framed Roger Rabbit 	Animator: additional animation 	
1989 	Back to Neverland(Short) 	Key animator 	
1989 	Tummy Trouble(Short) 	Animator 	
1989 	Vytor: The Starfire Champion (TV Movie) 	Animator 	
1990 	Happily Ever After 	Animator 	
1991 	Michael & Mickey 	Animator 	
1991 	Rover Dangerfield 	Storyboard Artist / Character Designer / Character Animator / Sequence Director 	
1991 	Rock-A-Doodle 	Character Animator 	
1992 	Bébé's Kids 	Director / Principal Character Designer 	
1993 	A Cool Like That Christmas (TV Movie) 	Character Designer 	
1994 	The Pagemaster 	Supervising Animator 	
1995 	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (TV Series)	Director - 12 Episodes / Character Designs - 2 Episodes/ Character Designer - 12 Episodes 	
1995 	A Goofy Movie 	Character Designer 	
1996 	C Bear and Jamal(TV Series) 	Creative Consultant - 3 Episodes / Character Designer 	
1996 	Quack Pack (TV Series) 	Animation Director / Supervising Animator - 1 Episode 	
1996 	Space Jam 	Animation Director 	
1997 	Cats Don't Dance 	Character Designer / Supervising Animator 	Sawyer and Max
1999 	Tarzan 	Supervising Animator 	Kerchak, Baboons & Baby Baboons
2000 	The Indescribable Nit (Short) 	Animator 	
2000 	The Emperor's New Groove 	Supervising Animator 	Pacha
2001 - 2005	The Proud Family(TV Series) 	Director - 1 Episode / Executive Producer / Writer / Creator - 52 Episodes / Developer - 2 Episodes	
2004 	Home on the Range 	Supervising Animator 	Pearl Gesner
2004 	One by One (Video short) 	Visual Development Artist 	
2004 	Da Boom Crew (TV Series) 	Co-Creator / Executive Producer 	
2005 	The Proud Family Movie 	Director / Executive Producer 	
2005 	The Picnic (TV Movie) 	Director 	
2005 	The Beach (TV Movie) 	Director 	
2009 	The Princess and the Frog (Video Game) 	Voice 	
2009 	The Princess and the Frog 	Supervising Animator / Voice 	Dr. Facilier
2011 	Winnie the Pooh 	Supervising Animator 	Kanga, Roo and Piglet
2011 	Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters (Video short) 	Animator: Duncan Studio Production 	
2012 	Tangled Ever After(Short) 	Lead Animator 	
2012 	Wreck-It Ralph 	Additional Visual Development 	
2013 	Frozen 	Additional Visual Development 	
2014 	The Pirate Fairy(Video) 	Senior Creative Team 	
2014 	Planes: Fire & Rescue 	Senior Creative Team 	
2016 	Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life 	Animator: animation sequences 	
2018 	Teen Titans Go! To the Movies 	Animator: additional animator 	
2018 	The Late Batsby 	Storyboard artist 	
Category:American film producers