Kelly Asbury
Born: Jan. 15, 1960 in Beaumont, Texas
Kelly Asbury was born in Beaumont and attended Lamar University, before transferring to California Institute of the Arts, near Los Angeles, in 1980.
He began his career at DreamWorks SKG in 1995. He directed "Shrek 2" which was released in the summer of 2004 and the Oscar nominated "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron", with Lorna Cook. His talents as a storyboard artist, art director and designer have been put to use on some of Hollywood's most popular animated films, like "Shrek", "Chicken Run", "The Prince of Egypt", "Toy Story", "Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas", "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid". More recently, he has worked on “Gnomeo and Juliet” (2011) as both an artist and voice actor, “Wreck it Ralph” (2012), and “Frozen” (2013).
Kelly Asbury has also written and illustrated numerous children's picture books, including the Halloween series "Witch Dot", "Frankensquare" and "Candy Corn", and the winter-themed "Where Is Snowy's Nose?" His colorful books "Rusty's Red Vacation", "Bonnie's Blue House" and "Yolanda's Yellow School", were included among Child Magazine's "Best Books of '97" and received glowing reviews from Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal, and Horn Books. Kelly Asbury also provided the illustrations for this fall's "Autumn Walk" and "Winter Walk".
He still writes and directs animated films, with his present “Smurfs” project due to be released in 2017.
