John Alan Lasseter is an American animator, filmmaker and former chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar and the defunct Disneytoon Studios. He was also the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Lasseter began his career as an animator with The Walt Disney Company. After being fired from Disney for promoting computer animation, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-groundbreaking use of CGI animation. The Graphics Group of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and became Pixar in 1986. Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar’s films and associated projects as executive producer. In addition, he directed Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cars (2006), and Cars 2 (2011). From 2006 to 2018, Lasseter also oversaw all of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ (and its division Disneytoon Studios’) films and associated projects as executive producer.
The films he has made have grossed more than $19 billion (USD), making him one of the most successful filmmakers of all time. Of the seven animated films that have grossed more than $1 billion, five of them are films executive produced by Lasseter. The films include Toy Story 3 (2010), the first animated film to pass $1 billion, Frozen (2013), the current highest grossing animated film of all time, as well as Zootopia (2016), Finding Dory (2016) and Incredibles 2 (2018).
He has won two Academy Awards, for Best Animated Short Film (for Tin Toy), as well as a Special Achievement Award (for Toy Story).
In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month sabbatical from Pixar and Disney Animation after acknowledging “missteps” in his behavior with employees. According to various news outlets, Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct towards employees. In June 2018, Disney announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year, but took on a consulting role until then. On January 9, 2019, Lasseter was hired to head Skydance Animation.
