Byron Howard

Byron P. Howard (born December 26, 1968) is an American animator, character designer, story artist, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is one of the directors of the Walt Disney Animation Studios films Bolt, Tangled (2010), Zootopia (2016), Encanto (2021), and Zootopia 2 (2025). He received four Academy Award nominations, with the latter two won for Zootopia and Encanto.

Early life and education Howard was born in Misawa, Japan, and raised in both the outskirts of Philadelphia

Career

Howard began his career at Disney as a tour guide at Disney MGM Studios. Howard had dreamed of working for Disney, and had written to Master Animator Frank Thomas, one of Disney's Nine Old Men, as he was growing up. He soon began the Disney Studio Internship and was hired in 1994, He was nominated for a 2003 Annie Award for Character Animation for Brother Bear.

The first film Howard directed was the animated Disney film Bolt, which was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In his role as co-director of the film with Chris Williams, Howard focused on character design and animation. He and Greno also co-directed and wrote the animated short Tangled Ever After, which features supporting characters from Tangled and showed in theaters before the 2012 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast.

Following the making of Zootopia, Howard was one of the keynote speakers at the 2016 View Conference. He presented on the process behind the making of Zootopia and he taught the skills behind creating characters in a workshop entitled "The DNA of Disney Character Design". After his work on Zootopia, Howard worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda on Encanto. Howard co-directed the film, alongside Zootopia co-director Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith, while Miranda wrote songs for the project, which centered on a girl from a magical Colombian family who lacks magic herself. Howard was officially announced as the co-director of Zootopia 2 on September 20, 2024, alongside Jared Bush, who the day before had become Chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios following Jennifer Lee's resignation of the position to direct Frozen 3.

In 2009, Howard became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Personal life In the Fusion documentary Imagining Zootopia, Howard mentioned he is gay and has been married since 1988.

Filmography

Feature films YearFilmCredited as Director Story ExecutiveProducer Animator VisualDevelopmentArtist Other Voice Role Notes 1995 Pocahontas In-between-er 1998 Mulan Animator: Yao and Fa Family Ancestors 2002 Lilo & Stitch Supervising Animator: Cobra BubblesCharacter Design 2003 Brother Bear Supervising Animator: Kenai - Bear 2005 Chicken Little Additional Story Artist 2008 Bolt Additional Screenplay Material 2009 The Princess and the Frog Disney Story Trust - uncredited 2010 Tangled Guard 2/Thug 2 2011 Winnie the Pooh 2012 Wreck-It Ralph 2013 Frozen 2014 Big Hero 6 Creative Leadership 2016 Zootopia Bucky Oryx-Antlerson/Travis Moana 2018 Ralph Breaks the Internet 2019 Frozen II 2021 Raya and the Last Dragon Additional Story, Creative Leadership Encanto Creative Leadership 2022 Strange World 2023 Wish 2024 Moana 2 Additional Story, Creative Leadership 2025 Zootopia 2 Berthold Hufschmerz/Bucky/Rusty/Joel Creative Leadership

Short films and series Year TitleDirectorWriterArtisticSupervisorExecutiveProducerOtherVoiceNotes 2000 John Henry Character Animation 2009 Super Rhino 2012 Tangled Ever After Lantern Wrangler/Chef 2022 Zootopia+ Bucky Disney+ Original short films 2024 Iwájú Disney+ Original long-form limited series

Awards Golden Globe Award 2008 – Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film for Bolt 2010 – Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film for Tangled 2017 – Won: Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film for Zootopia 2021 – Won: Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film for Encanto 2025 – Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film for Zootopia 2

Academy Award 2008 – Nominated: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Bolt 2017 – Won: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Zootopia 2021 – Won: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Encanto 2025 – Nominated: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Zootopia 2