Roger Allers

Prolific international animation figure who toiled for 20 years in the field, working in the US, Canada, and Japan, before making his feature directing debut with a bona fide Disney blockbuster, "The Lion King" (1994). Allers has covered the cartoon bases, serving variously as an art director, storyboard artist, character designer, story man, animator, and animation director. He did animation for "Rock & Rule" (1983), a musical feature from the Toronto-based Nelvana Studios, and provided character design, preliminary animation and story development for the lavish Japanese-produced "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland" (1992). For the latter project, he also spent two years in Tokyo as an animation director overseeing the Japanese artists. Allers started at Disney as a storyboard artist and eventually became head of story on the animated feature "Oliver & Company" (1988). He had a creative hand in each subsequent Disney animated feature--usually as a storyboard artist or head of the story team--up until taking the helm (with co-director Rob Minkoff) on "The Lion King."