Dan Scanlon


Dan Scanlon 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 passed away, 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 Monsters University, released in 2013, to positive reviews and commercial success. He subsequently directed the fantasy-road trip film Onward, featuring the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer.
Scanlon and his wife Michele live in San Francisco and work together on projects under the production company name Caveat Productions.

Filmography