100 Notable alumni of
California Institute of the Arts
Updated:
California Institute of the Arts is 244th in the world, 106th in North America, and 101st in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from California Institute of the Arts sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Tim Burton
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Studied in 1981
- Occupations
- writerdirectoractordesignerpoet
- Biography
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Timothy Walter Burton is an American director, producer, writer, and animator. Known for pioneering goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his gothic horror and fantasy films. He has received numerous accolades including an Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three BAFTA Awards. He was honored with the Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2007 and was given the Order of the Arts and Letters by Culture Minister of France in 2010.
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Alison Brie
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- In 2005 graduated with bachelor's degree in theatre
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actorfilm producerscreenwritervoice actor
- Biography
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Alison Brie Schermerhorn is an American actress, writer, and producer. Her breakthrough came with the role of Trudy Campbell in the drama series Mad Men (2007–2015), which won her a Screen Actors Guild Award. She gained recognition for her role as Annie Edison in the sitcom Community (2009–2015) and voicing Diane Nguyen in the animated comedy series BoJack Horseman (2014–2020). For playing Ruth Wilder in the comedy-drama series GLOW (2017–2019), she received nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two Critics' Choice Awards.
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Ed Harris
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- In 1973 graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- theatrical directorvoice actortelevision actordirectorfilm director
- Biography
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Edward Allen Harris is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in Apollo 13 (1995), The Truman Show (1998), Pollock (2000), and The Hours (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award nominations.
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Katey Sagal
- Occupations
- film actorsinger-songwritertelevision actoractorsinger
- Biography
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Catherine Louise Sagal is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Peggy Bundy on Married... with Children (1987–1997), Leela on Futurama (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023), Cate Hennessy on 8 Simple Rules (2002–2005), Gemma Teller Morrow on the FX series Sons of Anarchy (2008–2014), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 2011, and Louise Goldufski-Conner on The Conners (2018–present).
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David Hasselhoff
- Occupations
- screenwriterwritersingerfilm produceractor
- Biography
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David Michael Hasselhoff, nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on The Young and the Restless (1975–1982), playing the role of Dr. Snapper Foster. His career continued with his leading role as Michael Knight on Knight Rider (1982–1986) and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in Baywatch (1989–2000). He also produced Baywatch from the 1990s until 2001 when the series ended with Baywatch Hawaii.
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Sofia Coppola
- Occupations
- film actorwriterdirectorscreenwriteractor
- Biography
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Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and former actress. She has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
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Paul Reubens
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- film actorfilm producerwritervoice actorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Paul Reubens was an American actor and comedian, widely known for creating and portraying the character Pee-wee Herman.
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Don Cheadle
- Occupations
- television producerinternational forum participantvoice actortelevision actorfilm director
- Biography
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Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. is an American actor. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including two Grammy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also earned nominations for an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards and 11 Primetime Emmy Awards. His Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony nominations make him one of few black individuals to be nominated for the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT).
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Michael Richards
- Occupations
- television actorcomedianactorvoice actordancer
- Biography
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Michael Anthony Richards is an American actor and former stand-up comedian. He achieved global recognition for starring as Cosmo Kramer on the NBC television sitcom Seinfeld from 1989 to 1998. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, first entering the national spotlight when he was featured on Billy Crystal's first cable TV special, and went on to become a series regular on ABC's Fridays.
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Stephen Hillenburg
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- 1989-1992 graduated with Master of Fine Arts in experimental film
- Occupations
- screenwriterwriterfilm produceractorfilm director
- Biography
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Stephen McDannell Hillenburg was an American animator, voice actor, and marine biology educator. He is best known for creating the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants for Nickelodeon in 1999 – serving as the showrunner for its first three seasons, and again from season nine until his death – which has become the fifth-longest-running American animated series. He also performed the original voice of Patchy's pet parrot Potty the Parrot from the show.
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Cecily Strong
- Occupations
- comedianactortelevision actor
- Biography
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Cecily Legler Strong is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2012 to 2022. She is the longest-tenured female cast member in the show's history.
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John Lasseter
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- In 1979 graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- film directorexecutive producerfilm producerscreenwriterdirector
- Biography
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John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, and animator. He has served as the Head of Animation at Skydance Animation since 2019. Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
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Brad Bird
- Occupations
- film producerscreenwritervoice actordirectoractor
- Biography
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Phillip Bradley Bird is an American director, producer, writer, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action.
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Michael Cudlitz
- Occupations
- television actorvoice actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Michael Cudlitz is an American actor known for portraying John Cooper in the NBC/TNT drama series Southland for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2013, Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, and Sergeant Abraham Ford in the AMC horror series The Walking Dead.
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James Mangold
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriteractorfilm producer
- Biography
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James Allen Mangold is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Noted for his versatility in tackling a range of genres, Mangold made his debut as a film director with Heavy (1995), and is best known for the films Cop Land (1997), Girl, Interrupted (1999), Identity (2003), Walk the Line (2005), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and two films in the X-Men franchise with The Wolverine (2013) and Logan (2017), the latter of which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He then directed the sports drama film Ford v Ferrari (2019), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and directed and co-wrote Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones series.
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Eliza Coupe
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Eliza Kate Coupe is an American actress, comedian and model, known for playing Jane Kerkovich-Williams in the ABC comedy series Happy Endings, Denise "Jo" Mahoney in the final two seasons of the medical comedy-drama Scrubs, her starring role as Tiger on the Hulu comedy series Future Man, and her recurring role as Hannah Wyland in Quantico. She starred in the Fox comedy Pivoting in 2022. Most recently, she had supporting roles in the Netflix series Murderville and the CBS legal drama So Help Me Todd.
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Alex Hirsch
- Occupations
- screenwriteractoranimatorstoryboard artistvoice actor
- Biography
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Alexander Robert Hirsch is an American storyboard artist, writer, producer, and voice actor. He is the creator of the Disney Channel series Gravity Falls, for which he provided the voices of Grunkle Stan, Soos, and Bill Cipher, among others. He also earned BAFTA and Annie Awards for the series. In 2016, Hirsch co-authored Gravity Falls: Journal 3 which debuted as a No. 1 New York Times Best Seller and remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for forty-seven weeks. In 2018, Hirsch wrote Gravity Falls: Lost Legends which also appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.
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Bill Irwin
- Occupations
- theatrical directormime artisttelevision actorcomedianstage actor
- Biography
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William Mills Irwin is an American actor, choreographer, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a number of appearances on film and television, and he won a Tony Award for his role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He also worked as a choreographer on Broadway and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography in 1989 for Largely New York. He is also known as Mr. Noodle on the Sesame Street segment Elmo's World, and he appeared in the Sesame Street film short Does Air Move Things?. He has regularly appeared as Dr. Peter Lindstrom on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had a recurring role as "The Dick & Jane Killer" on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. From 2017 to 2019, he appeared as Cary Loudermilk on the FX television series Legion.
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Pete Docter
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm producerfilm directoranimatorvoice actor
- Biography
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Peter Hans Docter is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He has served as the chief creative officer (CCO) of Pixar Animation Studios since 2018, and is best known for directing the animated feature films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Soul (2020). He has been nominated for nine Oscars and has won three for Best Animated Feature—for Up, Inside Out and Soul—making him the first person in history to win the category three times. He has also been nominated for nine Annie Awards (winning six), a BAFTA Children's Film Award and a Hochi Film Award. He has described himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons".
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Andrew Stanton
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- voice actoranimatoractordirectorfilm director
- Biography
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Andrew Ayers Stanton is an American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar, which he joined in 1990. His film work includes co-writing and co-directing Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998), directing Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel Finding Dory (2016), WALL-E (2008), and the live-action film, Disney's John Carter (2012), and co-writing all four Toy Story films (1995–2019) and Monsters, Inc. (2001).
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Pendleton Ward
- Occupations
- storyboard artistvoice actortelevision produceranimatoractor
- Biography
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Ward Taylor Pendleton Johnston, known professionally as Pendleton Ward, is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor who has worked for Cartoon Network Studios, Frederator Studios, and Netflix Animation. He created the series Adventure Time, the Internet series Bravest Warriors, and the adult animated interview series The Midnight Gospel.
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Henry Selick
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriterfilm produceranimator
- Biography
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Charles Henry Selick Jr. is an American filmmaker and clay animator, best known for directing the stop-motion animated films The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Monkeybone (2001), Coraline (2009), and Wendell & Wild (2022). Selick is also known for his collaborations with the late voice actor and artist Joe Ranft.
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Ariel Pink
- Occupations
- singer-songwritercomposermusicianguitarist
- Biography
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Ariel Marcus Rosenberg, professionally known as Ariel Pink, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter whose work draws heavily from the popular music of the 1960s–1980s. His lo-fi aesthetic and home-recorded albums proved influential to many indie musicians starting in the late 2000s. He is frequently cited as "godfather" of the hypnagogic pop and chillwave movements, and he is credited with galvanizing a larger trend involving the evocation of the media, sounds, and outmoded technologies of prior decades, as well as an equal appreciation between high and low art in independent music.
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Butch Hartman
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm produceranimatorpodcasterfilm director
- Biography
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Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman IV is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and actor. He is best known for creating the animated television series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and Bunsen Is a Beast for Nickelodeon. Hartman created the production company Billonfold Inc. in 2003, which he uses primarily to produce his shows. Hartman was an executive producer on The Fairly OddParents for the entirety of its 16-year run.
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J.G. Quintel
- Occupations
- screenwriteractorfilm directoranimatorvoice actor
- Biography
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James Garland Quintel is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, writer, producer, and voice actor. He is best known as the creator of the Cartoon Network series Regular Show, in which he voiced Mordecai and High Five Ghost, and the HBO Max series Close Enough (2020–2022), in which he voiced Josh.
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Maneesh Sharma
- Born in
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India - Occupations
- film director
- Biography
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Maneesh Sharma is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema.
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Gail Ann Dorsey
- Occupations
- musicianbacking vocalistsingerguitarist
- Biography
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Gail Ann Dorsey is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she performed regularly in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016.
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Chris Lemmon
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Christopher Boyd Lemmon is an American actor and author.
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Craig McCracken
- Occupations
- cartoonistscreenwritertelevision produceranimator
- Biography
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Craig Douglas McCracken is an American cartoonist, animator, director, writer, and producer known for creating the Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Disney Channel and Disney XD's Wander Over Yonder, and Netflix's Kid Cosmic.
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Rob Minkoff
- Occupations
- film directorcharacter animatorscreenwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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Robert Ralph Minkoff is an American director, animator, and producer. He is best known for co-directing The Lion King (along with Roger Allers), and live-action films including Stuart Little (1999), Stuart Little 2 (2002), The Haunted Mansion (2003), and The Forbidden Kingdom (2008). In recent decades, he returned to feature animation with Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022). His wife, Crystal Kung Minkoff, is a cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
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Chris Sanders
- Occupations
- directorcharacter designerillustratorconcept artistdub actor
- Biography
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Christopher Michael Sanders is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. His credits include Lilo & Stitch (2002) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010), both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with Dean DeBlois, The Croods (2013) with Kirk DeMicco, and The Call of the Wild (2020). He is also known for creating the story behind Lilo & Stitch and for creating and voicing its latter title character in the film and its franchise.
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Mageina Tovah
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Mageina Tovah is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Glynis Figliola in the television series Joan of Arcadia (2003–2005), as Ursula Ditkovich in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and Zelda Schiff, the head librarian in The Magicians.
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Julie Taymor
- Occupations
- scenographercostume designerdirectorfilm directoropera director
- Biography
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Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue." She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.
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Deborah Joy Winans
- Occupations
- actorstage actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Deborah Joy Imani Winans is an American actress and singer, and member of the musical Winans family. She starred as Charity Greenleaf-Satterlee in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, Greenleaf.
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Lauren Faust
- Occupations
- painterscreenwritertelevision producerfilm produceranimator
- Biography
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Lauren J. Faust is an American animator, writer, director, and producer, best known as the creator of the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and DC Super Hero Girls. Faust has collaborated with her husband Craig McCracken on his four animated series The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder, and Kid Cosmic.
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Tom McGrath
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritervoice actortelevision produceractor
- Biography
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Thomas McGrath is an American voice actor, animator and filmmaker. He is known for the DreamWorks animated film Madagascar, which he co-wrote and directed with Eric Darnell while voicing the character of Skipper the Penguin. The film spawned two direct sequels, along with a spin-off animated series and film based on the penguins in which McGrath reprised his role as Skipper. McGrath has also directed other DreamWorks animated films such as Megamind, The Boss Baby and its 2021 sequel.
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John Maus
- Occupations
- musiciancomposerrecord producer
- Biography
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John Maus is an American musician, composer, singer, and songwriter known for his baritone singing style and his use of vintage synthesizer sounds and Medieval church modes, a combination that often draws comparisons to 1980s goth-pop. His early lo-fi recordings anticipated and inspired the late 2000s hypnagogic pop movement. On stage, he is characterized for his intense displays of emotion while performing. He is also a former teacher of philosophy at the University of Hawaii, where he later earned his PhD in political science.
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Rich Moore
- Occupations
- directoractortelevision directorvoice actorfilm director
- Biography
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Richard L. Moore is an American film and television animation director, screenwriter and voice actor. He is best known for serving as a director on primetime animated television series such as The Simpsons, The Critic and Futurama as well as directing the films Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Zootopia (2016) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) for Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is a two-time Emmy Award winner, a three-time Annie Award winner and an Academy Award winner.
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Mary Costa
- Occupations
- opera singervoice actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Mary Costa is an American retired actress and singer. Her most notable film credit is providing the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty. She is the last surviving voice actress of the three Disney Princesses created in Walt Disney's lifetime and was named a Disney Legend in 1999. She is a recipient of the 2020 National Medal of Arts.
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Chris Buck
- Occupations
- voice actorcomposeractorcharacter designerconcept artist
- Biography
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Christopher James Buck is an American film director, animator, and screenwriter known for co-directing Tarzan (1999), Surf's Up (2007) (which was nominated for the 2007 Oscar for Best Animated Feature), Frozen (2013), which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2014, and Frozen II (2019). He also worked as a supervising animator and story artist on Pocahontas (1995) and Home on the Range (2004).
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Glen Keane
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Studied in 1974
- Occupations
- concept artistcharacter designerchildren's writercartoonistcharacter animator
- Biography
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Glen Keane is an American animator, director, author and illustrator. As a character animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for 38 years (1974–2012), he worked on feature films including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan and Tangled. He received the 1992 Annie Award for character animation and the 2007 Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to the field of animation. He was named a Disney Legend in 2013, a year after retiring from the studio.
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Tony Anselmo
- Occupations
- character animatordub actoractorvoice actorclean-up artist
- Biography
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Tony Anselmo is an American voice actor and animator. He has been the official character voice of Donald Duck since 1985 following the death of the original voice actor, Clarence Nash. He has also provided voices for Donald's triplet nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
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John Musker
- Occupations
- film directordirectorcharacter animatorscreenwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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John Edward Musker is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He often collaborates with fellow director Ron Clements and is best known for writing and directing the Disney films The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Moana (2016).
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Michael Fitzpatrick
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Michael Sean "Fitz" Fitzpatrick is a French-American musician, singer and songwriter, who is the lead vocalist of the indie pop/neo-soul band Fitz and the Tantrums.
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Condola Rashād
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Condola Phylea Rashad, also known professionally as Dola Rashad, is an American actress best known for her work in the theatre. She first broke out with a critically acclaimed performance in Lynn Nottage's off-Broadway play Ruined (2009), which won a Pulitzer Prize.
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Walt Dohrn
- Occupations
- directormusicianfilm actoractorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Walter Dohrn is an American writer, director, animator, musician, and actor. He performed the voice of Rumpelstiltskin in Shrek Forever After, as well as various characters in Shrek the Third. Dohrn has also worked as writer, director, and storyboard director in Season 2 of SpongeBob SquarePants, and he also worked on 2 episodes from Season 3. He co-directed the film Trolls and directed it’s sequels, and voiced various characters in the franchise. In 2020, Dohrn signed a deal with DreamWorks Animation.
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Chris Miller
- Occupations
- film actorstoryboard artistscreenwritervoice actoractor
- Biography
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Christopher Matthew Miller is an American animator and voice actor employed by Paramount Animation. He is best known for directing Shrek the Third and Puss in Boots (for which he received his first Academy Award nomination) and for voicing Kowalski the penguin in the Madagascar film series.
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Michel Ocelot
- Occupations
- directormanufacturerscreenwriterpainterfilm director
- Biography
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Michel Ocelot is a French writer, designer, storyboard artist and director of animated films and television programs (formerly also animator, background artist, narrator and other roles in earlier works) and a former president of the International Animated Film Association. Though best known for his 1998 debut feature Kirikou and the Sorceress, his earlier films and television work had already won Césars and British Academy Film Awards among others and he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur on 23 October 2009, presented to him by Agnès Varda who had been promoted to commandeur earlier the same year. In 2015 he got the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb.
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Patrick McHale
- Occupations
- comics writerstoryboard artistscreenwritercreative directortelevision producer
- Biography
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Patrick Nolen McHale is an American animator, artist, screenwriter, director, and musician.
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Julia Holter
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- In 2009 graduated with composed musical work
- Occupations
- songwritermusicianrecord producersinger
- Biography
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Julia Shammas Holter is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist, and academic, based in Los Angeles. Following three independent album productions, Holter released Tragedy as her first official studio album in 2011. Ekstasis followed in 2012. After signing with Domino Records in 2013, she released the albums Loud City Song (2013), Have You in My Wilderness (2015) and the live-in-the-studio album In the Same Room (2017). Most recently, her double album Aviary was released in 2018.
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Amanda Aday
- Occupations
- stage actortelevision actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Amanda Lee Aday is an American actress, best known for her recurring role as Dora Mae Dreifuss on the first season of the HBO series Carnivàle (2003–05).
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Ravi Coltrane
- Occupations
- jazz musiciansaxophonistrecord producer
- Biography
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Ravi Coltrane is an American jazz saxophonist. Co-owner of the record label RKM Music, he has produced pianist Luis Perdomo, guitarist David Gilmore, and trumpeter Ralph Alessi.
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Arlene Klasky
- Occupations
- screenwritergraphic designerproducerfilm produceranimator
- Biography
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Arlene Phyllis Klasky is an American animator, graphic designer, producer and co-founder of Klasky Csupo with Gábor Csupó. In 1999, she was named one of the "Top 25 Women in Animation" by Animation Magazine. She is most known for her work with Nickelodeon in the 1990s and 2000s. She, along with her ex-husband Gábor Csupó and Paul Germain, co-created the animated series Rocket Power and the series Rugrats as well as the 2021 revival series of the same name.
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Mike Mitchell
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwritervoice actoranimator
- Biography
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Mike Mitchell is an American film director, writer, producer, actor and animator. He directed the films Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), Surviving Christmas (2004), Sky High (2005), Shrek Forever After (2010), Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011), The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015), Trolls (2016), The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019), and Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024).
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Adrian Molina
- Occupations
- film screenwriterscreenwriterfilm directoranimatorlyricist
- Biography
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Adrian Molina is an American animator, storyboard artist and screenwriter who works for Pixar. He co-wrote the screenplay and story of Coco (2017), which he also co-directed. He will make his directorial debut with the upcoming film Elio (2025), which he also wrote.
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Kelly Asbury
- Occupations
- concept artistcharacter designerscreenwritervoice actoractor
- Biography
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Kelly Adam Asbury was an American film director, writer, voice actor, and illustrator. He was best known for directing animated films, including Shrek 2, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Gnomeo & Juliet, Smurfs: The Lost Village, and UglyDolls.
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Douglas Rushkoff
- Occupations
- writerjournalist
- Biography
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Douglas Mark Rushkoff is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open-source solutions to social problems.
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Skyler Page
- Occupations
- voice actorscreenwriteranimatoractor
- Biography
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Skyler Dale Page is an American former animator, writer, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He is best known as the creator of the Cartoon Network animated series Clarence, as well as for his tenure as a writer and storyboard artist on the series Adventure Time.
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Arturo Márquez
- Occupations
- conductorcomposer
- Biography
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Arturo Márquez Navarro is a Mexican composer of orchestral music who uses musical forms and styles of his native Mexico and incorporates them into his compositions.
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Savage Steve Holland
- Occupations
- screenwritercasting directorfilm directoranimatorvoice actor
- Biography
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Savage Steve Holland is an American writer, cartoonist, producer, voice actor, animator, and film director who wrote and directed the films Better Off Dead (1985) and One Crazy Summer (1986), starring John Cusack. He also directed the film How I Got into College (1989), and animated the "Whammy" on the game show Press Your Luck. He later went on to create and produce Eek! the Cat and The Terrible Thunderlizards for Fox Kids. He now manages his own studio, Savage Studios Ltd., and directs shows for Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.
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Tom Lin Shu-yu
- Years
- 1976-.. (age 48)
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm director
- Biography
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Thomas Lin Shu-yu is a Taiwanese director and screenwriter. After the critical success of his first two features, Winds of September (2008), for which he won Best Original Screenplay at the 45th Golden Horse Awards, and Starry Starry Night (2011), he has been considered a leading filmmaker of his generation. His films often deal with autobiographical elements.
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Robert Williams
- Occupations
- graphic designercomics artistpaintervisual artistillustrator
- Biography
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Robert L. Williams, often styled Robt. Williams, is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine. Williams was one of the group of artists who produced Zap Comix, along with other underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, and Gilbert Shelton. His mix of California car culture, cinematic apocalypticism, and film noir helped to create a new genre of psychedelic imagery.
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Don Bachardy
- Occupations
- painterartistscreenwriter
- Biography
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Donald Jess Bachardy is an American portrait artist. He resides in Santa Monica, California. Bachardy was the partner of Christopher Isherwood for over 30 years.
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Kolleen Park
- Occupations
- actormusic directorconductor
- Biography
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Kolleen Park is an American-born South Korean-Lithuanian musical director, conductor, and actress, and is also a judge on the Korean talent show Korea's Got Talent.
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Mark Osborne
- Occupations
- film screenwriterscreenwriterfilm producerfilm directoranimator
- Biography
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Mark Randolph Osborne is an American film director, writer, producer and animator.
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Mark Bradford
- Occupations
- photographerconceptual artistinstallation artistdrawervideo artist
- Biography
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Mark Bradford is an American visual artist. Bradford was born, lives, and works in Los Angeles and studied at the California Institute of the Arts. Recognized for his collaged painting works, which have been shown internationally, his practice also encompasses video, print, and installation. Bradford was the U.S. representative for the 2017 Venice Biennale. He was included in Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2021.
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James Lapine
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Graduated with Master of Fine Arts in design
- Occupations
- writermusic directorlibrettistdirectorfilm director
- Biography
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James Elliot Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.
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Thor Freudenthal
- Years
- 1972-.. (age 52)
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Thor Freudenthal is a German film director, screenwriter, animator and special effects artist best known for his work on Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
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Aaron Johnson
- Occupations
- musiciancomposerrecord producer
- Biography
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Aaron Howard Johnson is an American music producer. Aaron has produced and mixed many artists including Alpha Rev, Secondhand Serenade, Katie Herzig, Adam Jensen, and Eve6, but he is best known for producing hit albums for the Denver-based rock band the Fray.
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Gary Trousdale
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Studied in 1974
- Occupations
- directoractoreffects animatortelevision directorvoice actor
- Biography
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Gary Trousdale is an American animator, film director, screenwriter and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing films such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). He frequently works with Kirk Wise and Don Hahn.
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Eliza Hittman
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Eliza Hittman is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer from New York City. She has won multiple awards for her film Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which include the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award—both for best screenplay.
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Robert Stromberg
- Years
- 1965-.. (age 59)
- Occupations
- film directordesigner
- Biography
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Robert Stromberg is an American special effects artist, designer and filmmaker. Stromberg's credits include films such as James Cameron's Avatar, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful. He made his directorial debut with the 2014 Disney film Maleficent, a re-imagining of the iconic Disney villain.
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Kyle Balda
- Occupations
- film directoranimator
- Biography
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Kyle Balda is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud; Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), with Pierre Coffin; and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. He previously worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic before moving to Pixar where he worked on three of their films.
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David Hammons
- Occupations
- architectural draftspersoninstallation artistprintmakerperformance artistdrawer
- Biography
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David Hammons is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s.
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Mark Andrews
- Occupations
- film directorvoice actorscreenwriteranimator
- Biography
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Mark Elliott Andrews is an American filmmaker and animator. He is best known for the 2012 Pixar feature film Brave. He was the story supervisor for The Incredibles, directed the short film One Man Band and co-wrote the short films Jack-Jack Attack and One Man Band.
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Eric Fischl
- Occupations
- printersculptorgraphic artistdrawerart educator
- Biography
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Eric Fischl is an American painter, sculptor, printmaker, draughtsman and educator. He is known for his paintings depicting American suburbia from the 1970s and 1980s.
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Jorge R. Gutiérrez
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwritervoice actorproduction designertelevision producer
- Biography
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Jorge R. Gutierrez is a Mexican animator, writer, producer, director, and voice actor. He co-created with Sandra Equihua the Nickelodeon animated series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, co-wrote and directed The Book of Life, Son of Jaguar for Google, and Maya and the Three for Netflix Animation.
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Catherine Opie
- Occupations
- university teacherphotographeracademic
- Biography
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Catherine Sue Opie is an American fine-art photographer and educator. She lives and works in Los Angeles, as a professor of photography at University of California at Los Angeles.
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Tony Bancroft
- Occupations
- film directorcharacter animatorvoice actorfilm producer
- Biography
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Tony Bancroft is an American animator and film director who frequently collaborates with Disney. He is the founder and owner of the faith-driven animation company Toonacious Family Entertainment. Tony is the Executive VP Creative Development and Production for DivideNine Animation Studios.
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Lorne Lanning
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Studied in 1987-1989
- Occupations
- film directorvoice actorwritervideo game developer
- Biography
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Lorne Lanning is an American game designer, director, writer and voice actor. He is also co-founder and president of the video game developer Oddworld Inhabitants. He is best known for creating the Oddworld series including the games Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! and Oddworld: Soulstorm.
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Jill Culton
- Occupations
- directorscreenwriterfilm directoranimatorstoryboard artist
- Biography
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Jill Culton is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and screenwriter. With her directorial debut on Sony's first animated film, Open Season, she became the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-animated feature.
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Mark Edward
- Occupations
- magician
- Biography
-
Mark Edward is an American mentalist and author. He has written books on mentalism, séance theory and production, including Psychic Blues published in 2009, where he discusses working for the Psychic Friends Network. Wilson has appeared on television as both primary consultant and on-air performer in such diverse programming as ABC's "The Con", A & E's Biography: "Houdini, the Great Escape", NBC's "The Other Side" and "Psychic Secrets Revealed", The Sci-Fi Channel's "Mysteries, Magic and Miracles", The Discovery Channel's "Forces Beyond", and on two episodes of The Learning Channel's "Exploring the Unknown". His featured segment as a spirit medium on the pilot episode of Showtime's "Penn & Teller's Bullshit!" series entitled "Speaking with the Dead" helped secure an Emmy Award nomination for that episode in 2002. He is a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
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Sam Doumit
- Occupations
- film actorstage actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Samia "Sam" Doumit is an American actress.
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Tony Oursler
- Occupations
- performance artistdirectorphotographerinstallation artistsculptor
- Biography
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Tony Oursler is an American multimedia and installation artist married to Jacqueline Humphries. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the California Institute for the Arts, Valencia, California in 1979. His art covers a range of mediums, working with video, sculpture, installation, performance, and painting. The artist currently lives and works in New York City.
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Laura Rizzotto
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Studied in 2013
- Occupations
- singer-songwriterpianistsingerguitaristcomposer
- Biography
-
Laura de Carvalho Rizzotto is a Latvian-Brazilian singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist. She released her debut studio album Made in Rio in 2011 through Universal Music Brazil, which included the single "Friend in Me". In 2014, she independently released her second studio album Reason to Stay, and independently released the extended play RUBY in 2017.
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Nate Wood
- Years
- 1979-.. (age 45)
- Occupations
- jazz drummerjazz musicianjazz bassistjazz guitaristjazz singer
- Biography
-
Nate Wood is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist. He has performed with Wayne Krantz, Kneebody, Tigran Hamasyan, Louis Cole, The Calling, and Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders.
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Z'EV
- Occupations
- poetpercussionistsound artistperformance artist
- Biography
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Z'EV was an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels. He is regarded as a pioneer of industrial music.
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Guillermo Gómez-Peña
- Occupations
- installation artistperformance artistwritermusicianphotographer
- Biography
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Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a Mexican/Chicano performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. Gómez-Peña has created work in multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, photography and installation art. His fifteen books include essays, experimental poetry, performance scripts, photographs and chronicles in both English, Spanish and Spanglish. He is a founding member of the pioneering art collective Border Arts Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo and artistic director of the performance art troupe La Pocha Nostra.
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Andrew Ahn
- Enrolled in California Institute of the Arts
- Graduated with Master of Fine Arts in film directing
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriterfilm producerdirector
- Biography
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Andrew Ahn is an American film director and screenwriter who has directed the feature films Spa Night (2016), Driveways (2019), and Fire Island (2022).
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John Duncan
- Occupations
- television producermusician
- Biography
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John Duncan is an American multi-platform artist whose body of work includes performance art, installations, contemporary music, video art and experimental film, often involving the extensive use of recorded sound. His music is composed mainly of recordings from shortwave radio, field recordings and voice. His events and installations are a form of existential research, often confrontational in nature. Duncan currently lives in Bologna, Italy.
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Baek Hee-na
- Occupations
- children's writerillustrator
- Biography
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Baek Hee-na is a South Korean author of picture books, an illustrator and animator. She writes picture books with characters that have distinct personalities and with charming storytelling based on various illustration production experiences. Her representative work, Magic Candies, was selected as a recommended work and included on the IBBY Honour List in 2018 and produced as a musical in South Korea. Baek is the first South Korean to win the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) in 2020. Her picture books have been translated and published in several languages, including English, German, Chinese, Japanese, Swedish and Norwegian.
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Helen Hill
- Occupations
- film directoranimatorsongwriter
- Biography
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Helen Wingard Hill was an American artist, filmmaker, writer, teacher, and social activist. When her final film, The Florestine Collection, was released in 2011, curators and critics praised her work and legacy, describing her, for example, as "one of the most well-regarded experimental animators of her generation".
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James King
- Occupations
- musicianmulti-instrumentalist
- Biography
-
James King is an American multi-instrumentalist who is a co-founder for soul band Fitz and the Tantrums. In 2008, he was approached by college friend Michael Fitzpatrick to play saxophone on a few songs that he had written which turned out to be the beginnings of Fitz and the Tantrums. King recommended Noelle Scaggs and other musicians. They performed for the first time a week later at Hollywood's Hotel Café. They released their debut EP Songs for a Breakup, Vol. 1 in August 2009, and the tracks soon received airplay on public radio station KCRW in Los Angeles.
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Stephen J. Anderson
- Occupations
- film screenwriterscreenwriteractorfilm directoranimator
- Biography
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Stephen John Anderson is an American storyboard artist, screenwriter, film director, and voice actor.
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Spencer Ludwig
- Years
- 1990-.. (age 34)
- Occupations
- trumpeter
- Biography
-
Spencer Ludwig is an American trumpeter, singer, songwriter, producer and musical director from Los Angeles, California. The former trumpet player for the band Capital Cities, he recorded on their debut album In a Tidal Wave of Mystery and toured with them from 2011 to 2015. He has also performed with Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Gallant, Mike Posner, Foster the People, Portugal. The Man, Fitz and the Tantrums, RAC, Joywave, St. Lucia, Cherub, and The Wailers. In 2018, he went independent and formed his own label, Trumpet Records.
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Mark Kirkland
- Occupations
- television directorphotographeranimatorfilm producer
- Biography
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Mark Kirkland is an American animation director. He has directed 84 episodes of The Simpsons since 1990, more than any other director.
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Sharon Robinson
- Occupations
- writersinger-songwritersingerrecord producercomposer
- Biography
-
Sharon Robinson is an American singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. She is best known as a frequent writing collaborator with Leonard Cohen, although she has written songs for a number of other artists as well, including The Pointer Sisters, Aaron Neville, Brenda Russell, Diana Ross, Don Henley, Michael Bolton, Randy Crawford, Patti LaBelle, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Bettye LaVette and others.
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Henry Taylor
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
-
Henry Taylor is an American artist and painter who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his acrylic paintings, mixed media sculptures, and installations.
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Soudabeh Moradian
- Occupations
- film directorfilm editor
- Biography
-
Soudabeh Moradian is an Iranian-American independent filmmaker. A number of her movies have been in official selection of various international film festivals and many of them won awards. She has made many documentary series about Iranian rural women, and some independent documentaries about "war and madness" such as "Doomsday Machine"," Story Of The Land On Ashes","Mahin", "Voices Against Them" and some other narrative and docufiction films and series like "The Leader of Caravan","My Name Is Tomorrow" and "Les Chroniques d'iran". She made her first full feature-length narrative called Polaris in 2014 in Los Angeles and Seattle starring Bahram Radan, Alicja Bachleda, Elisabeth Röhm and Coby Ryan McLaughlin. The subjects of her movies are mainly based on social issues, women and psychological impacts of war.
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Yarrow Cheney
- Years
- 1966-.. (age 58)
- Occupations
- special effects artistdesignerscreenwritergraphic designerauthor
- Biography
-
Yarrow Cheney is an American artist, film director, designer, author, illustrator, and animator. He is best known for his works as a production designer in Despicable Me 2 (2013), The Lorax (2012), and Despicable Me (2010) for which he received Primetime Emmy and Annie Awards nominations.
