Jill Culton is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and screenwriter. With her directorial debut on Sony's first animated film, Open Season, she became the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-generated feature.[1]
Education and career
Previously, she studied at the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, where she later taught animation.
She was also a storyboard artist for various Pixar films such as Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life and also co-wrote the original treatment for Monsters, Inc., and continued to become the Head of Development.
She animated on Toy Story and served as a Directing Animator at Turner Features for the film Cats Don't Dance.
Along with Anthony Stacchi, she helped to develop Curious George while working at Industrial Light & Magic.[2][3]
In 2003, Culton joined Sony Pictures Animation, which launched a year before to produce CG animated films.[4] During her years at Sony, Culton, along with directing Open Season and executive producing Open Season 2, also developed Hotel Transylvania.
As of 2010, Culton was at DreamWorks Animation.[5] For some time, she was writing and directing an animated film (now titled Abominable) about a little girl and a Yeti, tentatively titled Everest,[6][7] but by 2016, she had left the project.[8] However, in 2018, she came back to the project to write and direct once again.[9]
In June 2024, it was announced that Culton would serve as the co-director of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's adaptation of Oh, the Places You'll Go!.[10]
Filmography
- The Princess and the Cobbler (1993) (animator: Calvert/Cobbler Productions)
- Toy Story (1995) (story artist)
- Cats Don't Dance (1997) (supervising animator: Supporting Animal Characters, storyboard artist)
- A Bug's Life (1998) (additional storyboard artist)
- Toy Story 2 (1999) (character designer: new characters, story artist)
- Shrek (2001) (story artist)
- Monsters, Inc. (2001) (story, story supervisor, visual development)
- Open Season (2006) (director, story)
- Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run (2006) (director, writer)
- Surf's Up (2007) (special thanks)
- Open Season 2 (2009) (executive producer)
- Shrek Forever After (2010) (special thanks, character designer: new characters, story artist)
- Abominable (2019) (director, writer)
- Oh, the Places You'll Go! (2027) (co-director)