Lee Unkrich

Lee Edward Unkrich (born August 8, 1967) is an American film director, editor and writer. He is best known for his work with animation studio Pixar, which he joined in 1994 as an editor before being credited as a co-director on Toy Story 2 (1999).

Following the film's success, Unkrich served a similar role for the films Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003) before making his solo directorial debut with Toy Story 3 (2010). The film, along with the second of which he directed, Coco (2017), both won two Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.

After his 25-year tenure at the company, Unkrich retired in January 2019 to spend more time with his family and pursue other interests.

Early life and career

Unkrich was raised in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, the only child of Emilie Unkrich and Robert Unkrich. His father was a World War II veteran ("He stormed the beach at Normandy") and artist. Unkrich was raised in the Jewish faith. He spent his youth acting at The Cleveland Play House. Unkrich graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 1990.

Unkrich was Vice-President of Editorial and Layout at Pixar. Before joining the studio, Unkrich worked for several years in television as an editor and director. In 1994 he was hired by Pixar as a short-term employee for a period of four weeks, but ended up staying for 25 years. He is the 2011 recipient of the University of Southern California's Mary Pickford Distinguished Alumni Award recognizing alumni contributions to the cinematic arts.

On January 18, 2019, Unkrich announced he was leaving Pixar to spend time with his family and pursue interests that have "long been back-burnered." In 2023, Unkrich was revealed to have occasionally consulted at Pixar since leaving in 2019.

In late 2022 he announced he had completed editing a book about The Shining, written by J. W. Rinzler.

In 2023, Taschen released Unkrich's book Stanley Kubrick's The Shining in a limited collector's edition. The book was edited by Unkrich, and written by J. W. Rinzler and Unkrich.

Personal life

Unkrich is married to Laura Century and they have three children. Unkrich came out as bisexual to his family and friends in 2021 and came out publicly in 2022.

Filmography

Features

Year	Title	Director	(Original) Story by	Film Editor	Executive Producer	Other	Voice Role	Notes
1995	Toy Story	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
1998	A Bug's Life	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Additional Voices
1999	Toy Story 2	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Red Rocker	Additional Story Material
2001	Monsters, Inc.	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:Yes	Additional Voices
2003	Finding Nemo	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Additional Voices
2004	The Incredibles	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No		Brain Trust - uncredited
2006	Cars	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:No
2007	Ratatouille	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
2008	WALL-E	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Pixar Senior Creative Team
2009	Up	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2010	Toy Story 3	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Jack-In-The-Box / Scotch-Taped Monkey	Additional Screenplay Material Pixar Senior Creative Team
2011	Cars 2	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Pixar Senior Creative Team
2012	Brave	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2013	Monsters University	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2015	Inside Out	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	The Good Dinosaur	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2016	Finding Dory	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2017	Cars 3	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Coco	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Elote Skeleton
2018	Incredibles 2	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2019	Toy Story 4	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2020	Onward	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Soul	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Special Thanks
2021	Luca	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Pixar Senior Creative Team
2022	Turning Red	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Lightyear	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2023	Elemental	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes

Television

• Prison Stories: Women on the Inside (1991) (TV) (production assistant)
• Silk Stalkings (1991) (TV Series) (assistant editor, editor, director)
• Renegade (1993) (TV series) (assistant editor)
• Betrayed by Love (1994) (TV) (assistant editor)
• Separated by Murder (1995) (TV) (editor)

Documentaries

Year	Title	Role
2007	The Pixar Story	Himself
2022	Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to 'Lightyear'

Shorts and TV specials

Year	Title	Role
2000	For the Birds	Thanks
2002	Mike's New Car	Special Thanks
2008	Presto
2011	Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation
2013	The Blue Umbrella
	Toy Story of Terror!	Extra Special Thanks
2014	Toy Story That Time Forgot
	Lava	Special Thanks
2015	Sanjay's Super Team
2016	Piper
2018	La Noria
2019	Float
2020	Loop	Story Trust
2021	Pixar Popcorn: A Day in the Life of the Dead	Special Thanks
2022	Cars on the Road: Gettin’ Hitched	Pixar Senior Creative Team

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Template:AllMovie name
• Template:Twitter