Biography
Simon J Smith is an award-winning writer and director with 30 years of experience in computer graphics and over 38 years in film, television, and post-production. He specializes in crafting engaging stories with compelling characters. Simon is best known for directing feature animation at PDI/DreamWorks Animation, including the film "Penguins of Madagascar," starring Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich, as well as the Golden Globe-nominated "Bee Movie," featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Rene Zellweger.
Following his time at DreamWorks, Simon joined Unity Technologies, where he wrote and directed three real-time short films for Disney. These shorts, titled "Baymax Dreams," explore the character Baymax from "Big Hero 6" and develop a future production pipeline using the Unity engine, posing the question, "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" The answer, it seems, is yes.
In 2018, Simon J Smith earned a Technical Emmy for writing and directing "Baymax Dreams."
During his 19-year tenure at PDI/DreamWorks, Simon created the Layout Pipeline for "Antz," the studio's second computer-animated film, and served as Head of Layout (cameraman/cinematographer) for both "Antz" and the Oscar-winning "Shrek." He later directed several DreamWorks projects, including "Shrek Imax," the studio's first stereoscopic 70mm film; the Universal theme park attraction "Shrek 4D"; and shorts like "Far Far Away Idol," starring Simon Cowell, and "The Button of Doom," featuring Will Ferrell.
Prior to moving to the United States in 1997, Simon worked for 16 years at leading London post-production companies such as The Mill, Framestore, VTR, SVC TV, and the ad agency BBDO. His roles included directing, editing, animating, and FX supervising on a variety of projects, commercials, and music videos for clients like Apple, Nike, Honda, Pepsi, VW, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and George Michael.
