Lee Edward Unkrich (born August 8, 1967) is an American film director, editor and writer. He is best known for his work with animation studio Pixar, which he joined in 1994 as an editor before being credited as a co-director on Toy Story 2 (1999). Following the film's success, Unkrich served a similar role for the films Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003) before making his solo directorial debut with Toy Story 3 (2010). The film, along with the second of which he directed, Coco (2017), both won two Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. After his 25-year tenure at the company, Unkrich retired in January 2019 to spend more time with his family and pursue other interests.

Early life and career

Unkrich was raised in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, the only child of Emilie Unkrich and Robert Unkrich. His father was a World War II veteran ("He stormed the beach at Normandy") and artist. Unkrich was raised in the Jewish faith. He spent his youth acting at The Cleveland Play House. Unkrich graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 1990. Unkrich was Vice-President of Editorial and Layout at Pixar. Before joining the studio, Unkrich worked for several years in television as an editor and director. In 1994 he was hired by Pixar as a short-term employee for a period of four weeks, but ended up staying for 25 years. He is the 2011 recipient of the University of Southern California's Mary Pickford Distinguished Alumni Award recognizing alumni contributions to the cinematic arts. On January 18, 2019, Unkrich announced he was leaving Pixar to spend time with his family and pursue interests that have "long been back-burnered." In 2023, Unkrich was revealed to have occasionally consulted at Pixar since leaving in 2019. In late 2022 he announced he had completed editing a book about The Shining, written by J. W. Rinzler. In 2023, Taschen released Unkrich's book Stanley Kubrick's The Shining in a limited collector's edition. The book was edited by Unkrich, and written by J. W. Rinzler and Unkrich.

Personal life

Unkrich is married to Laura Century and they have three children. Unkrich came out as bisexual to his family and friends in 2021 and came out publicly in 2022.

Filmography

Features

Television

Documentaries

Shorts and TV specials