Nick ParkBirth Place: Preston, Lancashire, England, UK Date of Birth: December 6, 1958 Heritage: British Famous for: The creator of Wallace and Gromit Contact Nick Park | 
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Wallace and Gromit Background: “My mum and dad, especially my mum, were very working class and now I have all this money. I can't handle money. Life was easier when I didn't have much, like when I was a student. I do like objects. I've got a lovely house in Bristol but I tend to stay out of business. I stay on the creative side. I only attend the meetings. I do just whatever I have to do as a director of the company. I'm 44 and I'm happy to be an animator forever. I don't have ambitions to do anything else, except live life.” Nick Park First coming to prominence as an animator on Peter Gabriel's award winning music video “Sledgehammer” (1986), British filmmaker Nick Park has been nominated for six Academy Awards. He won three in the category of Best Animated Short for the films “Creature Comforts” (1989), “The Wrong Trousers” (1993) and “A Close Shave” (1995) and one for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year for “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” (2005). The latter three films starred Park's most illustrious creations, a naive English inventor named Wallace and his best friend, the dog Gromit. Park also directed or co-directed the Wallace and Gromit sequels “A Grand Day Out” (1989) and “A Matter of Loaf and Death” (2008) and the acclaimed animated feature “Chicken Run” (2000). He is also known as the creator of the TV animated series “Creature Comforts” (2003-2006) and “Shaun the Sheep” (2007-current). Joining Aardman Animations in 1985, Park has since become one of the key figures at the British animation studio. On October 30, 1996, Park was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Art degree by Britain's Bath University. He was awarded CBE by HRH Queen Elizabeth II a year later on November 25, 1997. More recently, he won a Special Award from the 2006 Evening Standard British Film Awards for his contribution to British film and the 2009 Annie's Winsor McCay Award for his contribution to the art of animation.
Childhood and Family: Nicholas Wulstan Park, who would later be famous as Nick Park, was born on December 6, 1958, in Preston, Lancashire, England, to a photographer, Roger Park, and a dressmaker named Celia. He was educated at Cuthbert Mayne High School (now Our Lady's Catholic High School) and gained a BFA in communication art from the Sheffield Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) in Sheffield in 1980. The same year, he began studying animation at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield. It was there that he began making “A Grand Day Out.”
Career: Nick Park developed a keen interest in drawing cartoons as a school boy and started making films when he was 13. His professional debut, the animated short “Archie's Concrete Nightmare,” aired on BBC in 1975. With a degree in animation, Park joined Aardman Animations, a Bristol based animation studio founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in the mid-1970s, in 1985. Before long, he attracted attention with his animation for the Peter Gabriel music video “Sledgehammer” (1986). It collected nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987 and ranked No. 4 on the MTV list of “100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made” in 1999. It has also been named MTV's No. 1 “Animated Video of All Time,” among other honors. During this period, he contributed animation to “Babylon” (1985), a short co-directed by Lord and Sproxton, and the CBS popular children's show “Pee-wee's Playhouse” (1986). In 1989, Park completed and released the first Wallace and Gromit adventure, “A Grand Day Out,” which he had been developing since attending the National Film and Television School. The 23 minute length film, through which Park made his debut as director/writer, won a 1990 BAFTA for Best Animated Film and a Jury Award at the 1990 Munich International Festival of Film Schools. Released in the U.S. on May 18, 1990, it went on to earn a 1991 Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film. Still in 1989, Park created and directed the animated short “Creature Comforts,” which was produced by Aardman Animation as part of a series called “Channel 4's “Lip Synch.” A zany film about how animals feel about living in a zoo, the short won Park his first Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. He also picked up a Grand Prize (3rd place) at the 1990 Ottawa International Animation Festival, a Special Jury Award at the 1991 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Cartoon d'Or from Europe's Cartoon Forum, an Audience Award for Best Short at the 2003 Sydney Film Festival and a BAFTA nomination for Best Animated Film. The same year, he also provided animation for Peter Lord's BAFTA nominated short “War Story.” Park returned to his signature characters Wallace and Gromit for the second short “Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers,” which was released in the U.K. and then the U.S. in December 1993. Directed and co-written with Bob Baker, the film earned primarily positive reviews and won Park his next Academy Award. Other awards he won for the film include a BAFTA Film for Best Animated Film, the 1994 Cartoon d'Or, an Audience Award for International Competition at the 1994 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the Grand Prize and Audience Award at the 1994 Ottawa International Animation Festival, a Golden Space Needle Award for Best Short Film at the 1994 Tampere International Short Film Festival, a Jury Special Prize for Short Film at the 1993 Valladolid International Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films. In 1995, Park directed and co-wrote (again with Baker) “A Close Shave,” the third half hour short to feature the eccentric inventor Wallace and his intelligent silent dog Gromit. Premiering on BBC 2 on December 10, 1995, the animation followed in the footsteps of its predecessor and won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1995. It also brought Park a 1996 BAFTA for Best Animation (shared with producers Carla Shelley and Michael Rose), an Audience Award for Best Film at the 1996 Anima Mundi Animation Festival, the Animation Jury Award for Outstanding Director and Children's Jury Award for Animated Short Film or Video at the 1996 Chicago International Children's Film Festival, a Jury Award for Best Short at the 1996 Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, a 1996 OIAF Award for Animated Production Especially Produced for Television and Not Part of a Series from the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and Audience Award for Best Animation and Jury Award for Best Animation at the 1996 Palm Springs International ShortFest, to name a few. Park next served as executive producer on the award winning short “Stagefright” (Channel 4, 1997), which was written and directed by Steve Box. Entering the new millennium, Park co-directed (with Peter Lord), co-wrote (with Lord and Karey Kirkpatrick) and co-produced (with Lord and David Sproxton) “Chicken Run” (2000), a stop motion animated feature about a group of chickens and their attempt to escape death. Starring the voices of top names like Mel Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Imelda Staunton and Phil Daniels, the film gained prominent reviews from critics and was nominated for a 2001 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical. It amassed another 23 nominations and 22 wins, with Park sharing a British Animation for Best European Feature Film, a Peter Sellers Award for Comedy from the 2001 Evening Standard British Film Awards, a Festival Prize for 30 Minute or Longer Category at the 2001 Krok International Animated Films Festival, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Best Animation, BAFTA's Alexander Korda nomination for Best British Film, an ALFS nomination for British Producer of the Year, Empire nominations for Best British Director and Best Debut, and a European Film nomination for Best Film, to name a few. “Chicken Run” grossed nearly $225 million at the box office against its budget of $45 million. Park next contributed to the segments “Showmantron” and “Shopper 13” to “Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions,” a series of ten Wallace and Gromit stop motion animations varied in length from one to three minutes that were produced and released by Aardman Animations in 2002. The television series adaptation of “Creature Comforts” debuted on the British television network ITV on October 1, 2003. As co-creator/executive producer, he jointly received a BAFTA nomination for Best Comedy Program or Series Award. An American version of the show began airing in June 2007 on CBS, but was canceled after three episodes because of poor ratings. In 2005, Park returned to the big screen when he directed (with Steve Box) the first Wallace and Gromit feature, “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” which he also co-produced and co-wrote. Distributed by DreamWorks Pictures with Peter Sallis reprising his voice role of Wallace from a string of acclaimed shorts, the animated movie was a commercial and critical success and won Park a 2006 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year (shared with Box), in addition to Annie awards for Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production, Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production and Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production, an Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film and a BAFTA Children's Award for Best Feature Film, an Empire Award for Best Director, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Best Animation and PGA's Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award for Animated Motion Picture. In 2007, Park created the British stop-motion animated children's television series “Shaun the Sheep,” where he also served as executive producer and writer. Premiering on BBC One on March 5, 2007, the show went on to become a worldwide hit and won a 2008 International Emmy for Children & Young People (UK). The second season finale, “Two's Company,” aired on December 4, 2009. Park next directed and co-wrote (with Baker) the half hour TV animated film “Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death'” (2008), his fourth short to star his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was a hit with audiences, but only received tepid reviews from critics. In 2009, the film won an Annie for Best Animated Short Subject, a BAFTA for Best Short Animation and a Children's Jury Award (2nd place) for Animated Short Film or Video. The following year, it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short film, Park's sixth nomination at the prestigious gala. In 2009, Park wrote the video game version of Wallace & Gromit titled “Grand Adventures: Fright of the Bumblebees.” He also executive produced “Timmy Time,” a spin off of “Shaun the Sheep.” “Success brings with it pressure to conform. I always thought that success would lead to freedom, but the opposite is true. More people get involved and committees make decisions and it becomes a fight to stay free. My colleagues and I have to constantly remind each other that we must keep our own view on the world while making films.” Nick Park
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