Kyle Balda has been working in feature character animation for over 20 year, most notably with Pixar Animation Studios and Illumination Entertainment. He began his career in early 90’s as a student at Calarts and soon after joined to crew of Industrial Light and Magic where he animated on such films as The Mask (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996) and as supervising animator on Jumanji (1995). After animating the Grim Reaper for Peter Jackson’s The Frightners (1996) at Weta Digital in New Zealand, Kyle returned to California to work at Pixar on A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and as directing animator of Toy Story 2 (1999). Following a number of years conducting 3D animation masterclasses at renowned European and Asian film schools and directing short form animation projects, Balda returned to feature production in Paris as the head of layout for Illumination’s Despicable Me (2010) followed by co-directing The Lorax (2012). Balda has since directed a number of short films for Illumination and is presently directing Minions along side Pierre Coffin which is due to release in 2015.