WALLACE & GROMITNICK PARK (Director/Screenwriter/Producer) All three films were created at Aardman, where Park is a Co-Director, together with founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton. “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” starred Park’s most famous creations, the cheese-loving Wallace and his faithful canine companion, Gromit. In 2000, Park directed and produced DreamWorks Animation’s “Chicken Run,” the first feature-length film from Aardman, starring the voice of Mel Gibson. The film went on to be an international box office hit and was named the best-reviewed movie of that year. One of his earliest works, “Archie’s Concrete Nightmare,” shot on standard 8mm film, was shown on BBC Television in 1975. He went on to earn a BA in Communication Arts at Sheffield Art School in 1980, before moving on to the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield, England. While there, he began working on “A Grand Day Out,” which marked the introduction of Wallace & Gromit. In February 1985, Park joined Aardman where he completed the film. He then directed “Creature Comforts” for Aardman’s “Lip Synch” series for Channel 4 Television. In 1990, “Creature Comforts” won the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short and “A Grand Day Out” received a nomination, giving Park the rare distinction of having two films Oscar®-nominated in the same category in the same year. He also garnered BAFTA Award nominations for both films, this time winning for “A Grand Day Out.” Park won his second Academy Award® and another BAFTA Award for the Wallace & Gromit film “The Wrong Trousers,” and his third Oscar® and BAFTA Award for “A Close Shave,” also starring the beloved duo. Two of the most successful animated shorts ever made, “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” have won over 80 additional awards between them. Collectively, Park and Aardman were also honored with a BAFTA Special Award for Original Contribution to Television. In 1997, Park was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). During his tenure at Aardman, Park has also served as a director and animator on numerous projects, including pop promos, title sequences and inserts for children’s television. After six years with CMTB, Steve joined the Aardman studios. Quickly making his mark as a talented and valued animator, he was asked by Nick Park to join the team filming what became the Academy Award®-winning short “The Wrong Trousers,” starring Wallace & Gromit. It was Box who animated the dastardly Penguin, Feather McGraw. In 1995, he again collaborated with Nick Park on another Wallace & Gromit Academy Award®-winning short, “A Close Shave,” on which Box animated that beauty of the silver screen, Wendolene Ramsbottom. In 1997, Box directed his first short film for Aardman, “Stage Fright,” which premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Box’s tale of Victorian ambition and deceit went on to win a BAFTA Award for the Best Animated Short Film of 1997, in addition to many other prestigious awards. In 1999, Nick Park and Peter Lord invited Box to be an animator on Aardman’s first feature film, “Chicken Run.” “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” marks Box’s feature film directorial debut. In 2000, Lord directed and produced Aardman’s first full-length feature, DreamWorks Animation’s “Chicken Run,” starring the voice of Mel Gibson, which was a commercial and critical smash. Lord first met David Sproxton in the early 1970s at school, where they started experimenting with animation techniques on their kitchen table. They tried a range of methods before settling on clay model animation. While they were still in their teens, a BBC children’s television producer offered them the chance to make short animated films for his program “Vision On.” Their first character as professionals was Morph, who later starred in his own series “The Amazing Adventures of Morph.” As a testament to Morph’s enduring appeal, he still appears in new productions today. Moving to Bristol in 1976, Lord and Sproxton built Aardman into one of the world’s leading model animation studios. In 1978, Aardman was commissioned by BBC Bristol to make two short films entitled “Animated Conversations.” The resulting “Down and Out” and “Confessions of a Foyer Girl,” both co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, broke new ground in animation by using recordings of real-life conversations. That led to a series of five “Conversation Pieces” for England’s Channel 4, all of which were co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, including “Early Bird” and “On Probation.” Expanding into music videos, Aardman collaborated with director Stephen Johnson and the Brothers Quay to create Peter Gabriel’s award-winning video for “Sledgehammer.” In 1987, Lord created the video for Nina Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” Two years later, Channel 4 again commissioned Aardman to create the five-picture “Lip Synch” series, which included Lord’s “War Story.” Lord’s other directing credits include “Going Equipped” and “Babylon.” Together with Sproxton, Lord has also played a major role in encouraging and promoting new directors. His executive producer credits with Aardman include “Creature Comforts,” “Rex,” “HumDrum” and “Stage Fright.” Aardman’s special brand of animation has also been seen in commercials for such products as Chevron, Lurpack, Mita Copiers, Cadbury’s Crunchies and Polo. DAVID SPROXTON (Producer) is the co-owner and Executive Chairman of Aardman. Together with co-founder Peter Lord, he has overseen the company’s growth from a two-man partnership into one of the pre-eminent animation houses in the industry. Over the years, Sproxton has served as a producer, director or cinematographer on a number of animated projects at Aardman. Sproxton previously served as a producer on 2000’s “Chicken Run,” which marked the first feature collaboration between Aardman and DreamWorks Animation, and was a worldwide hit with both critics and audiences. Sproxton and Lord met in grammar school and, in 1970, made their first animated film using Sproxton’s Bolex camera. A crude piece using cutouts and chalk drawings, it nevertheless showed enough talent for a BBC Children’s Television producer to offer the pair a chance to make short animated films for his program “Vision On.” Following graduation from Durham University, Sproxton decided to pursue filmmaking full-time. In 1972, Sproxton and Lord formed Aardman and, in 1976, moved to their permanent home in Bristol, England. Their first professional creation was the character Morph, who went on to star in the BBC series “The Amazing Adventures of Morph.” During this period, the duo made two short animated films, “Down and Out” and “Confessions of a Foyer Girl,” applying the groundbreaking technique of using recorded conversations of real people as the basis for the script. Later, five more films called “Conversation Pieces,” using the same “vox pop” technique, were commissioned by Channel 4. “Vox pop” was also utilized in Aardman’s “Lip Synch” series for Channel 4, which included Nick Park’s Oscar®-winning “Creature Comforts.” In addition to Park, the studio is known for discovering and nurturing new filmmakers in the field of stop-motion animation, including Steve Box, who won a BAFTA Award for his direction of “Stage Fright.” Other talents developed under the Aardman banner include the Oscar®-nominated and BAFTA-winning Peter Peake, the director of “HumDrum”; Richard Goleszowski, who directs the “Rex the Runt” series for BBC 2; and Darren Walsh, whose “Angry Kid” series was released directly onto the Internet. Moving on to become an independent producer, Jennings produced the animated shorts “Jolly Roger” and “The Canterbury Tales,” both of which went on to earn Academy Award® nominations in 1999. In addition, Jennings won a BAFTA Award for “The Canterbury Tales,” and received another BAFTA Award nomination that year for “Jolly Roger.” In 2000, Jennings produced the acclaimed animated short “Father and Daughter,” which won both the Academy Award® and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Short, as well as numerous other honors at international film and animation festivals. Jennings has also been involved in the production of several television series, including “Stressed Eric” and “The Big Knights,” both of which received critical acclaim. In addition, she has worked as an Executive in Charge of Development and as an executive producer for two of the largest animation studios in London, Studio AKA and HIT Entertainment. In 2003, Jennings joined Aardman’s team as a producer on “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” Shelley won a BAFTA Award for her work as a producer on Nick Park’s Oscar ®-winning Wallace & Gromit film “A Close Shave.” She also produced Peter Peake’s Oscar ®- and BAFTA-nominated short “HumDrum,” as well as his BAFTA-nominated “Pib & Pog,” for Channel 4. In addition, Shelley worked on the series “The Amazing Adventures of Morph,” for BBC television. Before moving into film production, Shelley was head of Aardman’s commercials division for four years. She has produced numerous commercials, including the Lurpak campaign; the Heat Electric ads featuring Nick Park’s famous “Creature Comforts” characters; and ads for Cadbury’s Crème Eggs. Prior to joining Aardman, Shelley had a background in radio production, working for the BBC. Burton has written extensively for many leading British comedy shows, including “Clive Anderson Talks Back,” “Jack Dee’s Happy Hour,” “Never Mind the Buzzcocks,” “2DTV,” “Have I Got News For You” and “Spitting Image.” He was also the co-creator and co-writer of the BBC sitcom “The Peter Principle,” which starred Jim Broadbent. BOB BAKER (Screenwriter) first collaborated with Nick Park to write the Wallace & Gromit short “The Wrong Trousers,” which won numerous awards, including an Oscar®. Three years later, he and Park teamed again to write the third Wallace & Gromit short, “A Close Shave,” which won an Oscar® in 1996 and an Emmy in 1997. Educated in Bristol at Air Balloon Hill School, Baker attended the West of England College of Art. After leaving college, he began making animated films in a home built studio, including a series of short cartoons for the BBC. Together with his then-writing partner, Baker started his writing career scripting nine episodes of the popular series “Dr. Who,” which retains a cult following to this day. Baker went on to write ten series over nine years. He also wrote many television plays, including “Thick as Thieves,” which won the British Television Society Award for Best Drama. In addition, he wrote a number of popular children’s series, including “King of the Castle,” which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. Baker has also written for a number of primetime police series in the UK, including “Z Cars,” “Shoestring” and “Bergerac.” He also spent several years at HTV, where he oversaw all script matters for numerous international co-productions. MICHAEL ROSE (Executive Producer) enjoyed a long association with Aardman, where he oversaw the studio’s film and television projects for eight years. He was closely involved in the development of “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” Rose left Aardman in 2002 to set up the London-based feature film company Magic Light Pictures, which he runs with producer Martin Pope. He is currently working to build Magic Light’s slate of live-action and animated features. Rose served as an executive producer on Aardman’s first full-length feature, “Chicken Run.” In addition, he co-produced a number of Aardman’s short films, winning BAFTA Awards for his work on Nick Park’s “A Close Shave” and Steve Box’s “Stage Fright.” He also served as a producer on Peter Lord’s Oscar®-nominated “Wat’s Pig” and Peter Peake’s Oscar®-nominated “HumDrum.” Before joining Aardman in 1994, Rose worked at Britain’s Channel 4, buying series, movies and shorts. He began his career programming independent cinemas. Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation, Kramer produced visual effects for live action films, including “Crimson Tide” and “Cabin Boy.” She also served as the photography supervisor for the visual effects unit on “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.” In addition, Kramer was a production executive at Buena Vista Pictures and at Walt Disney Imagineering. Kramer began her career as a feature film costumer and later worked as a production coordinator on various TV commercials and as a production manager in the public broadcasting field. Nott has also scored both feature films and television dramas. His film composing credits include the features “A Christmas Carol – The Movie,” “New Year’s Day,” “My Mother’s Courage,” for German director Michael Verhoeven, “A Man of No Importance” and “Weak at Denise.” In addition to his composing work, Nott directed, produced and co-wrote “Weak at Denise,” earning a British Independent Film Award. He also produced the short “Chicken,” for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Short Film. For television, Nott has written music for such diverse projects as the BBC miniseries “A Respectable Trade”; the telefilms “Gentlemen’s Relish,” “H-E Double Hockey Sticks” and “Lorna Doon”; and the series “Sunburn” and “The Vice.” He also scored the animated short “Flatworld.” Nott was educated at Oxford University, where he won a music scholarship. He then attended the UK’s National Film and Television School as a film music scoring student. It was there that he met Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park. Zimmer has garnered six additional Academy Award ® nominations, the latest for his “Gladiator” score, for which he also won a Golden Globe Award and earned a Grammy Award nomination. He has also been Academy Award ®-nominated for “The Prince of Egypt,” “The Thin Red Line,” “As Good As It Gets,” “The Preacher’s Wife” and “Rain Man.” Earlier this year, he earned his seventh Golden Globe nomination for his score for James L. Brooks’ comedy “Spanglish.” He had previously earned Golden Globe nominations for his work on “The Last Samurai,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” and “The Prince of Egypt.” Zimmer’s long list of film credits goes on to include the recent hits “Madagascar,” and “Batman Begins,” the score for which he co-wrote with James Newton Howard, as well as “The Ring Two,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Matchstick Men,” “Shark Tale,” “Black Hawk Down,” “The Ring,” “Hannibal,” “Crimson Tide,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Mission: Impossible 2,” “A League of Their Own,” “Black Rain,” “Backdraft,” “True Romance” and “My Beautiful Launderette.” He has a wide range of films upcoming, including Gore Verbinski’s “The Weather Man,” the animated comedy “Over the Hedge” and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel. In addition to his composing work, Zimmer heads DreamWorks’ film music division. His appointment marks the first time a composer has headed the music department of a major studio since the days of Dimitri Tiomkin at MGM and Alfred Newman at Twentieth Century Fox. Since 1981, McCormick has enjoyed a long career as an editor on a wide range of documentaries. He has edited numerous nature documentaries and documentary series for the BBC, including “Snake Hunter,” “Natural World,” “Giants,” “Living Europe,” “Land of the Tiger,” “Great Natural Journeys,” “Wildlife on One,” “Nightmares of Nature” and “Realms of the Russian Bear.” GREGORY PERLER (Editor) counts “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” as his first stop-motion animated film, although he has worked as an editor on both traditional and computer-animated films. He was an editor on “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,” which earned an Oscar® nomination for Best Animated Feature. His other animation credits as an editor include “102 Dalmatians,” “Tarzan” and “A Goofy Movie.” Earlier in his 20-year career, Perler worked as an associate editor on “Beauty and the Beast,” which is the only animated feature to earn an Oscar ® nomination for Best Picture. For television, Perler has edited the specials “Eloise at Christmastime” and “Eloise at the Plaza.” Educated at New York University, Perler has also worked on short films and as a sound editor. Before moving to Aardman, Riddett was a co-founder of the original Bolex Brothers, creating various music promos and title sequences. He also directed three animated television serials for “Round the Bend.” Additionally, he has worked as a cartoonist, photographer, painter and technical lecturer on film. TRISTAN OLIVER (Director of Photography) began working with Aardman as a lighting cameraman on Peter Lord’s Academy Award®-nominated short films “War Story” and “Adam.” His credits as a director of photography include the Oscar®-nominated “Big Story” and Steve Box’s BAFTA Award-winning short “Stage Fright.” He also served as a co-director of photography Nick Park’s Oscar®-winning Wallace & Gromit films “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave,” and, more recently, on Aardman’s first feature film, “Chicken Run.” Oliver first made his name as a cinematographer lensing more than 170 television commercials in his native England. He won a Kodak craft award for the “Heat Electric – Parrots” commercial, which won an award as the best commercial of the year. He also worked on a number of award-winning short films and television dramas, in addition to shooting several successful stills campaigns. Oliver graduated from college before enrolling in film school, where he won the Fuji and BP Kodak Cinematography awards for his student film “Casino.” He later attended film school in Moscow as part of the Kodak award. Before coming to Aardman, Price worked as a lead animator on Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” From 1984 to 1992, he was an animator for Cosgrove-Hall Films where he worked on many productions, including the BAFTA Award-winning “Wind in the Willows” and “Fool of the World and the Flying Ship.” In 1996, Price set up and tutored the first two Animator Training Courses run by Aardman in conjunction with the University of the West of England, with the aim of training new character animators to work on Aardman’s feature films. PHIL LEWIS (Production Designer) studied at Twickenham College of Art and Design, and worked as a freelance model maker and art lecturer throughout the 1970s. In the early 1980s, he joined Asylum Models & Effects in London, initially as a model maker and eventually as a designer and director of the company. During this time, he worked on numerous pop promos, still shoots and commercials, collaborating with such filmmakers as Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott and Lester Bookbinder, among others. Moving to Bristol in 1989, Lewis began working with Aardman, serving as an art director on the Wallace & Gromit films “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave,” as well as on many commercials for the studio. In 1997, Lewis joined forces with scenic artist and set builder Tim Farrington, in response to Aardman’s feature film needs. Their collaboration resulted in Lewis serving as the production designer and head of the art department on “Chicken Run,” and Farrington Lewis Co. Ltd building the sets and models. The partnership lasted until 2001, during which time they designed and built sets for many commercials and other productions. Directly after graduating from Art College, Sanger came to Aardman 19 years ago, when the company was a small independent first establishing itself in the shorts and commercials industries. She set up the company’s first model making department in 1989. Sanger has worked on a wide range of award-winning films, including stints as art director, assistant director and animator on Peter Lord’s “War Story” and “Adam,” and art director on “Wat’s Pig.” Her work at Aardman also includes Nick Park’s Oscar ®-winning “The Wrong Trousers,” Steve Box’s BAFTA Award-winning “Stage Fright” and Richard Goleszowski’s “Ident.” Her early commercial credits include Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, Lurpak, Discos and Cadbury’s Crunchies.
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NICK PARK (Director/ Screenwriter/ Producer) is a three-time Academy Award® winner in the category of Best Animated Short for the films “Creature Comforts,” “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave.”