Chris Williams

**Chris Williams** is an American director, scrennwriter and animator working at Walt Disney Animation Studios. The young filmmaker is perhaps most known for the Oscar nominated 2008 animated feature *Bolt*, but he has also worked on several other projects, including but not limited to: *Mulan*, *The Emperor's New Groove* and *Brother Bear*. He also voiced Oaken in the 2013 Disney animated feature *Frozen* and co-directed the 2014 Disney animated feature *Big Hero 6*.

Chris Williams has worked in the story department in Walt Disney Animation Studios, however Bolt marked the first time for him as a director working together Byron Howard. Chris Williams is currently working on an upcoming animated feature film called *King of the Elves*, based on the story by Philip Dick with the same name.

## Early life

Williams was born in Missouri and spent the first 25 years in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where his father taught psychology courses at the University of Waterloo. After graduating from the animation program at Sheridan College, he was recruited by Disney and moved to Los Angeles.

## Career

Williams previously worked in the story department for *Mulan*, *The Emperor's New Groove*, *Brother Bear* and *Bolt*, in which he later directed with Byron Howard, both of them replacing Chris Sanders as the original director. Williams co-directed (with Don Hall) the animated film, *Big Hero 6*, inspired by the Marvel Comics of the same name.

He is set to direct the upcoming animated feature film, *King of the Elves*, based on the story by Philip K. Dick.

### Working with *Bolt*

Chris Williams started working on the feature film Bolt in 2007, shortly after that Chris Sanders had been released and John Lasseter had taken over the project. During the production of Bolt, Chris Williams focused mostly on the story whereas the other director, Byron Howard, was mostly concerned with the design and animation. Both Chris Williams and Byron Howard worked very closely with John Lasseter at the time and the movie, which marked a milestone in Disney Animation as the first critically acclaimed animated feature from the studio in almost ten years, was released on the 24th of November, 2008.

## Filmography

* Mulan (1998): story
* The Emperor's New Groove (2000): story and story artist
* Lilo & Stitch (2002): story supervisor
* Brother Bear (2003): additional story material
* Chicken Little (film) (2005): story artist
* Meet the Robinsons (2007): additional story artist
* Glago's Guest (2008): director and writer
* Bolt (film) (2008): director, screenplay, and additional voices
* Super Rhino (2009): executive producer
* Prep & Landing (2009): based on a story by and executive producer
* Tangled (2010): additional story artist
* Paperman (2012): special thanks
* Wreck-It Ralph (film) (2012): additional story artist
* Frozen (2013): story artist and voice of Oaken
* Big Hero 6 (2014): director and creative leadership
* Frozen Fever (2015): voice of Oaken
* Zootopia (2016): additional story artist
* Moana (film) (2016): co-director and story
* Gone Fishing (2017): co-director
* Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017): voice of Oaken
* Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018): additional story artist, executive producer, and creative leadership
* Cycles (2020): voice of Young Bert
* Once Upon A Snowman (2020): voice of Oaken