Dan Scanlon
Dan Scanlon (born June 21, 1976) is an American animator, storyboard artist and director, working for Pixar, for whom he has directed "Monsters University" and "Onward". Early life. Scanlon grew up in Clawson, Michigan. When he was one year old and his brother three years old, their father died, and when they were teenagers, a relative gave them a brief audio recording of their father. Scanlon has said that these experiences helped inspire the story of "Onward." He graduated with a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1998. Career. Scanlon was an animator for  The Indescribable Nth and "". He served as a storyboard artist for "" and "". Scanlon joined Pixar in 2001, where he was a story artist for "Cars" and "Toy Story 3". He co-directed the short film "Mater and the Ghostlight". He illustrated part one of "Unmentionables", a comic book written by his wife, Michele Scanlon, and wrote and directed the live-action feature film "Tracy". "Tracy" was Scanlon's first feature film as a writer/director. He also served as a member of the senior creative team on "Brave" and "Inside Out". Scanlon directed the prequel film of "Monsters, Inc.", "Monsters  University", released in 2013, to positive reviews and commercial success. He subsequently directed the fantasy-road trip film "Onward" (2020), featuring the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to another Pixar film "Soul". Scanlon and his wife Michele live in San Francisco and work together on projects under the production company name Caveat Productions.