Jared Bush

Jared Bush (born June 12, 1974) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director, who has served as the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios since 2024. He is best known for co-writing and co-directing the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Zootopia (2016) and its upcoming sequel Zootopia 2 (2025), writing the film Moana (2016), its sequel Moana 2 (2024) and the 2026 upcoming live-action remake, and writing, directing, and winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for the film Encanto (2021), besides co-creating and executive producing the Disney XD animated series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero.

Career

Bush was originally hired by Walt Disney Animation Studios on a "provisional eight-week contract". He joined the Zootopia project early on, before it evolved from a spy film into a police procedural; he was excited to work on a spy film because both his father and grandfather had worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. Several months after joining Disney, he had to personally pitch Zootopia to Disney chief executive officer Bob Iger.

He went on to write the screenplays for the films Moana and its sequel Moana 2.

Bush co-created the animated television series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero. In 2021, Bush directed Encanto about a Colombian magical family alongside Byron Howard with Charise Castro Smith as co-director. Bush also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Castro Smith.

On September 19, 2024, Disney Animation announced that chief creative officer Jennifer Lee was stepping down from that position to direct and write Frozen 3 and to write and executive produce Frozen 4. Bush was named as her successor.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive Producer	Other	Voice	Note
2000	What Lies Beneath	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Assistant: Mr. Rapke
2014	Big Hero 6	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Creative Leadership
2016	Zootopia	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Pronk Oryx-Antlerson
	Moana	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2018	Ralph Breaks the Internet	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2019	Frozen 2	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2021	Raya and the Last Dragon	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Encanto	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2022	Strange World	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2023	Wish	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2024	Moana 2	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2025	Zootopia 2	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2026	Moana	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Creator	Producer	Writer	Story editor	Composer
2000	DAG	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:No
2002	Baby Bob	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2003	Totally Outrageous Behavior	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2003	Dumber and Dumber	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2003–04	Who Wants to Marry My Dad?	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2003–07	All of Us	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Template:No
2014–17	Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes

Short films

Year	Title	Executive Producer	Other	Voice	Notes
2022	Zootopia+	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Pronk Oryx-Antlerson	Disney+ Original short films

Unrealized projects

• Mancation

Awards and nominations

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	For	Recipient(s)	Result	Template:Ref heading
BET Comedy Awards	2005	Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series	All of Us	Jared Bush, Arthur Harris, Stacy A. Littlejohn, Lori Lakin, Jewel Wormley, Josh Wolf, Demetrius Andre Bady, Byron Hord, Ray Lancon, John Simmons, Rob Rosell, Chad Drew, Betsy Borns	Template:Nominated
Seattle Film Critics Award	2017	Best Animated Feature	Zootopia	Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Rich Moore	Template:Won
Alliance of Women Film Journalists	December 21, 2016	Best Animated Film			Template:Won
Annie Awards	February 4, 2017	Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production		Jared Bush and Phil Johnston	Template:Won
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America	May 20, 2017	Ray Bradbury Award			Template:Nominated
Annie Awards	March 12, 2022	Best Animated Feature	Encanto	Jared Bush, Template:Sort name, and Template:Sort name	Template:Nom
British Academy Film Awards	March 13, 2022	Best Animated Film		Jared Bush, Template:Sort name, Template:Sort name and Template:Sort name	Template:Won
Academy Awards	March 27, 2022	Best Animated Feature			Template:Won
Hugo Awards	September 4, 2022	Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form		Template:Sort name, Jared Bush, and Byron Howard	Template:Nom
Imagen Awards	October 2, 2022	Best Director – Feature Film			Template:Won
Nebula Awards	May 21, 2022	Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation		Template:Sort name, Jared Bush, Template:Sort name, Template:Sort name, Template:Sort name, and Template:Sort name	Template:Nom

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Template:Twitter