Sergio Pablos
Sergio Pablos is a Spanish-American animator, director, and screenwriter. While at the helm of his company (The SPA Studios), Pablos developed several concepts for animated feature films, most notably the original ideas upon which "Despicable Me" (Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment in 2010) and "Smallfoot" (produced by the Warner Animation Group in 2018) were based.   Most recently, the SPA Studios has produced Netflix’s first original animated feature film, "Klaus", written and directed by Pablos. Early life. Sergio Pablos is from Barcelona, Spain. After working as a key animator on "Once Upon a Forest" (1993), he moved  to Paris, France, to pursue a career opportunity at Walt Disney Animation Studios where he worked on "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996) and "Hercules" (1997). Pablos was then promoted to a Supervising Animator position at Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, handling the character of Tantor the elephant on "Tarzan" (1999), and Dr. Doppler on "Treasure Planet" (2002), the latter of which garnered him a nomination for Best Character Animation at the Annie Awards. Career. Pablos’ first job in animation with Disney Studios in Paris was as a character designer on "A Goofy Movie" (1995). From that connection he moved to  Walt Disney Animation Studios and began learning the ropes, working as animator or contributing to character designs on several major 2D animation productions, including "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (character of Frollo), "Hercules" (character of Hades), "Tarzan" (character of Tantor the elephant), and "Treasure Planet" (character of Doctor Doppler). He was nominated for an Annie Award for his work on "Treasure Planet". Subsequent to his departure from Disney, he was hired as character design supervisor on "" for Columbia. After several more years working in animation production, Pablos created the "Despicable Me" franchise based on his original screen story "Evil Me  and his own art design. He took the package unsolicited to Universal Pictures where he became the first of several screenwriters on the project as well as executive producer. In 2010, Despicable Me"—starring Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Will Arnett, and Julie Andrews—was a box office success, received a Golden Globe nomination, and became one of animation’s highest-grossing movies. Pablos continued work as a character designer on another animated feature, "Rio" for 20th Century Fox, which was released the following year. He received his second Annie Award nomination for "Rio". After the  release of "Despicable Me 2" in 2013, theatrical markets (worldwide box office) and ancillary markets (home media, cable, merchandising, books, video games, TV series, theme parks, etc.), pushed franchise total revenues to over ten figures. He was the writer for the film Warner Animation Group's "Smallfoot". He then formed Sergio Pablos Animation Studios in Madrid, Spain, where he made his directorial debut with "Klaus." Personal life. Pablos shares his time between the U.S. and Spain where he is CEO and Creative Director of The SPA Studios in Madrid.