Frederik Du Chau

Animator, writer, and director Frederik Du Chau grew up in Belgium, where he studied animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Thanks to a student film Du Chau made in 1989 called "The Mystery of the Lamb," he was able to travel to Los Angeles and get a job as an animator in Hollywood. This eventually led to other work in the film industry, such as storyboard artist. It was by storyboarding that Du Chau began working with animation legend Chuck Jones. Du Chau continued evolving in his career, becoming an animation director in 1995 for the children's video "The Land Before Time III: The Time of Great Giving." Then he signed up with the animation department at Warner Brothers, which allowed him to direct his first animated film, the 1998 medieval family adventure "Quest for Camelot." Du Chau was also focusing on writing at the time and sold two scripts. In 2005, he co-wrote and directed the family adventure "Racing Stripes," a live-action movie about a talking zebra (voiced by Frankie Muniz) who wants to become a winning racehorse. The film featured acting by Hayden Panettiere and voice acting by Whoopi Goldberg, Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Foxworthy, and Snoop Dogg. The success of this film boosted Du Chau's stature, and he later directed "Underdog," a live-action family film about a superpowered dog, based on the animated TV series from the 1960s and 1970s.