Dan Gerson

Daniel Robert Gerson (August 1, 1966 – February 6, 2016) was an American screenwriter and voice actor, best known for his work with Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He co-wrote the screenplays of Monsters, Inc., Monsters University and Big Hero 6, which was reported to be his last film as screenwriter.

Gerson contributed material to Chicken Little, Cars, Meet the Robinsons, Up, Inside Out and Zootopia, as well as television shows including Misguided Angeles, Big Wolf on Campus and Something So Right. Big Hero 6 won the Academy Award for best animated film and was also the highest-grossing animated film of 2014. He also won a BAFTA award.

Early life Gerson grew up in New York on the Upper West Side and attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School before studying at Cornell University, where he was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity, Mu chapter. He married Beau Stacom, with whom he had two children. Andrew Stanton credited him as having rewritten and improved Monsters, Inc. after he was unable to continue with the project: "I’ve never written anything that I felt was [not improvable], and Dan Gerson was the guy who came in after I left and kept running with it."

Gerson also in interview described the format of a college comedy challenging to integrate with an animated film for children: "There's a general sense of the fun of being a college student, without any of the things that might be in a more adult-oriented college film."

Roy Conli, who produced Big Hero 6, described his and Baird's approach to writing the film as being "to find that line that was emotional and not damaging." Outside scriptwriting, Gerson advised Pixar president Edwin Catmull on structuring his 2014 autobiography.

Filmography Monsters, Inc. - 2001 - screenplay and voice actor Chicken Little - 2005 - additional story material Cars - 2006 - additional screenplay material Meet the Robinsons - 2007 - additional story material Monsters University - 2013 - writer and voice actor Big Hero 6 - 2014 - writer and voice actor

Death Gerson died in Los Angeles on February 6, 2016, at the age of 49, from heart failure and brain cancer-related complications. He was working on Cars 3 at the time of his death. The film was completed by several screenwriters and was dedicated to his memory.