Bob Persichetti

Bob Persichetti was an American animator, screenwriter, and director who helped bring many of the biggest animated films of the 21st century to life, before landing his big break with a groundbreaking take on the world's favorite web-slinging superhero. Persichetti began working in animation in 1997, acting as an inbetweener on "Hercules" (1997). He would continue to work at Disney for the next five years, assisting animators on such projects as "Mulan" (1998), "Tarzan" (1999), "Fantastia 2000" (1999), "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000), "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" (2001), and "Treasure Planet" (2002). During this time, with CGI animation on the rise, Disney's continued use of 2D cell animation was causing them to fall behind, and Persichetti soon decamped for the greener pastures of Dreamworks Animation, where he worked as a storyboard artist on "Shrek 2" (2004), "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005), "Flushed Away" (2006), "Shrek the Halls" (2007), and "Monsters and Aliens" (2009). He was promoted to Head of Story for his next project, "Puss in Boots" (2015), a title he also held for Netflix's animated adaptation of "The Little Prince" (2015), which he co-wrote with screenwriter Irena Brignull. Persichetti got his big break when he was tapped alongside Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman to co-direct the first animated film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018). The film's psychedelic visuals, a combination of computer animation and hand-drawn comic book techniques, its inspirational good humor, and stellar voice cast (including Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, John Mulaney, and Nicolas Cage) wowed both critics and audiences, and the film won Best Animated Feature film at the 46th Annie Awards, the 76th Golden Globe Awards, the 24th Critics' Choice Awards, and the 72nd BAFTA Film Awards, plus a nomination in that category at the 91st Academy Awards.