Rob Minkoff

Born: Palo Alto, California

The director, producer, animator and writer first came to the attention after he co-directed the Disney cartoon smash The Lion King.

He subsequently helmed the two Stuart Little movies about the white mouse who has been adopted by Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie.

As a child he used to analyse movie such as Sleeping Beauty and he also acted in his spare time with local theatre groups.

In 1982, he served an internship at Disney and had a chance to train with one of the studio's legendary "nine old men," Eric Larson.

A year later, Minkoff was hired by Disney and began to work on his first assignment, The Black Cauldron followed by The Great Mouse Detective.

The next few years he worked on various aspect of Disney's feature films such as developing and writing for a variety of animated features.

These included a song for Oliver & Company (1988), character designs for The Little Mermaid (1989), and an early treatment for Beauty and the Beast (1991).

He also wrote the story for Tummy Trouble, the animation featuring Charles Fleischer as Roger Rabbit's voice - a film which he co-directed with Frank Marshall.

Recent work includes the live action Disney comedy Haunted Mansion starring Terence Stamp and Eddie Murphy.