Kyle Balda

Kyle Balda is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films The Lorax, with Chris Renaud; Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), with Pierre Coffin; and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. He also directed the live-action film The Sheep Detectives (2026). He previously worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic before moving to Pixar where he worked on three of their films.

Early life Balda was born in Tucson, Arizona, to a Maltese mother. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1990s and dropped out after two years for a job he was offered.

Career During his time at CalArts, Balda was hired by LucasArts as an intern to create the animated opening credit sequence for the graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle.

He started his career as an animator by working at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), in films including The Mask as graphics animator, Jumanji as animation supervisor, and Mars Attacks! as character animator. This collaboration would lead to him becoming head of layout on Despicable Me. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools. The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012, by Universal Pictures and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million.

In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, Minions, this time alongside Pierre Coffin. The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015, by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion.

In 2017, Balda co-directed Despicable Me 3. In his role as co-director, he pushed for the film to have a more vibrant color palette than its predecessors.

On June 7, 2024, it was announced Balda would make his live-action directorial debut with The Sheep Detectives, a film adaptation of Leonie Swann's book Three Bags Full, set to be produced by Amazon MGM Studios.

Personal life Balda currently resides in the Oregon coast.

Filmography Film Year Title Notes 1994 The Flintstones CGI animator 1994 The Mask Graphics animator 1995 Jumanji Animation supervisor 1996 Mars Attacks! Character animator 1996 The Frighteners 1998 A Bug's Life Additional animator 1999 Toy Story 2 Directing animator 2001 Monsters, Inc. Animator 2010 Despicable Me Layout supervisor 2011 Hop Special thanks 2012 The Lorax Co-director Forces of Nature Director 2015 Minions Competition 2016 Weenie 2017Despicable Me 3 2022 Minions: The Rise of Gru 2026 The Sheep Detectives