Chris McKay

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**Chris McKay**, also known as **Chris Taylor**, is an American film and television director, producer, editor, animator, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing and editing three seasons of *Robot Chicken* and two seasons of *Moral Orel*. He worked as an animation co-director on *The Lego Movie* (2014) with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. He made his feature film directorial debut with *The Lego Batman Movie* (2017)*.* He is attached to direct a live-action film about Nightwing.

## Early life and education

McKay was born in Winter Park, Florida, but spent most of his childhood in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, McKay was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock films and decided to pursue film. He shot his earliest work on his parent's Super 8 film camera. McKay attended Southern Illinois University for two years as a film student, and completed his degree at Columbia College Chicago. While studying in Chicago, McKay attended his first film shoot-for the 1989 comedy *Uncle Buck*.

## Career

In his early career McKay worked at several video and equipment rental companies. After purchasing production equipment of his own, he worked for three years shooting and editing music videos, industrial videos and local films. Then he started an editing job at a production company where he completed his first film *2wks, 1yr*. McKay started his career as an editor, after leaving that company he first edited a film of his friend, titled *Kwik Stop.*

### Television

In 2004, McKay moved to Los Angeles and landed an editing job at the animation studio ShadowMachine. He started work on the first episode of *Robot Chicken*, a stop motion adult animated sketch comedy TV series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich. McKay created and voiced the series' first end title sequence.

In 2006, McKay started work on animated series *Moral Orel* for Adult Swim. whose creator Dino Stamatopoulos once said to him that he "really deserve[d] a producer credit" on the series, on which McKay replied that he would "really like to do is direct." So in the second season of the series, Dino let him direct more than half episodes out of twenty episodes and also from the third season.

His work on *Moral Orel* impressed Matt and Seth, who offered him to direct *Robot Chicken* and in 2007, McKay directed the third, fourth, and the fifth seasons of the series, aired on Adult Swim.

In 2007, McKay worked as editor and visual effect artist on the special episode *Robot Chicken: Star Wars* with Seth, which aired on June 17, 2007. Then in 2008, he also worked on the *Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II* as co-producer and animation editor. In 2010, McKay directed and co-produced the final installment of the special episodes, *Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III*.

In 2009, McKay co-produced and directed the complete first season of the animated sci-fi adventure series *Titan Maximum* on Cartoon Network.

### Film

In 2011, Warner Bros. hired McKay to join directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on the live-action animated *The Lego Movie* to co-direct the film's animation, the film was released domestically on February 7, 2014 and grossed over $468 million against a reported budget of $60 million. While Lord and Miller were working on *22 Jump Street*, they sent McKay to Australia to supervise all animation, editing, effects, lighting and rendering of *The* *Lego Movie*.

In March 2014, Warner Bros. set McKay to direct the sequel to the 2014 hit *The* *Lego Movie,* which Lord and Miller would produce, and Michelle Morgan and Jared Stern would write. On October 10, WB announced the spin-off film *The Lego Batman Movie,* pushing back *The Lego Movie Sequel* and fast-tracking development. McKay directed *The Lego Batman Movie*, which was released on February 10, 2017. Seth Grahame-Smith co-wrote the screenplay, while Will Arnett reprised the voice of Batman.

In February 2015, Warner Bros. announced the development of a theatrical *Adventure Time* animated film adaptation, which would be produced and written by creator Pendleton Ward and produced by Roy Lee and McKay. In March 2015, McKay signed a first-look deal for being a producer with Warner Bros.

McKay is currently developing and is attached to direct *Nightwing*, as a part of the DC Extended Universe, and is also set to direct an adaptation of *Jonny Quest*. as well as a sequel to *The Lego Batman Movie*. He, alongside Jon and Josh Silberman, is set to produce the live-action/animation film *Coyote vs. Acme*, based on *Looney Tunes* character Wile E. Coyote, and directed by Dave Green.

## Filmography

### Film

#### Producer

* *The Lego Ninjago Movie* (2017)
* *Coyote vs. Acme* (TBA)

#### Executive producer

* *The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part* (2019)
* *Scoob!* (2020)

#### Editor

* *It's Now... or NEVER!* (1995)
* *35 Miles from Normal* (1997)
* *Stricken* (1998)
* *Bullet on a Wire* (1998)
* *Kwik Stop* (2001)
* *The Lego Movie* (2014)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Interview: Chris McKay [part 1"]. yourdailyjoe.com. http://www.yourdailyjoe.com/2009/09/interview-chris-mckay-part-1.html. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Interview: Chris McKay [part 2"]. *yourdailyjoe.com*. http://www.yourdailyjoe.com/2009/09/interview-chris-mckay-part-2.html. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
3. ↑ "Warners greenlights 'Lego' feature", *variety.com* (November 11, 2011). Retrieved on July 23, 2015.
4. ↑ "The LEGO Movie (2014)". boxofficemojo.com. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lego.htm. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
5. ↑ "Supervising Animator Chris McKay Talks 'The LEGO Movie'", *awn.com* (February 10, 2014). Retrieved on July 23, 2015.
6. ↑ "Warner Bros Builds 'Lego' Sequel With Chris McKay Directing" (March 12, 2014). Retrieved on July 16, 2015.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "'Lego Batman' Spinoff Movie in the Works at Warner Bros. (Exclusive)", *hollywoodreporter.com* (October 10, 2014). Retrieved on July 16, 2015.
8. ↑ Busch, Anita (February 27, 2015). "Cartoon Network's 'Adventure Time' Heads To Big Screen At Warner Bros.". Retrieved on July 23, 2015.
9. ↑ "'Lego Batman' Director Gets First-Look Deal at Warner Bros. (EXCLUSIVE)", *variety.com* (March 6, 2015). Retrieved on July 16, 2015.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Warner Bros. Plotting Live-Action 'Nightwing' Movie With 'Lego Batman Movie' Director (Exclusive)", *The Hollywood Reporter* (February 23, 2017). Retrieved on February 28, 2017.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Zinski, Dan (November 8, 2018). "Jonny Quest Movie Lands LEGO Batman Director Chris McKay". https://screenrant.com/jonny-quest-movie-director-chris-mckay/. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Anderson, Jenna (December 5, 2018). "'LEGO Batman Movie 2' in the Works". https://comicbook.com/dc/2018/12/05/lego-batman-movie-2-sequel-lego-movie-chris-mckay/.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Donnelly, Matt (December 17, 2019). "Warner Bros.' Wile E. Coyote Movie Sets Dave Green to Direct (EXCLUSIVE)". *Variety*. Penske Media Corporation. https://variety.com/2019/film/news/looney-tunes-coyote-v-acme-director-dave-green-warner-bros-1203440879/. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
14. ↑ Borys Kit (April 15, 2019). "'Ninja Turtles' Director Jonathan Liebesman Tackling 'Doctor Dolittle' Reshoots (Exclusive)". https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ninja-turtles-director-tackling-doctor-dolittle-reshoots-1201707. Retrieved January 9, 2020.

## External links

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