Lee Unkrich

Lee Unkrich is, to me, one of the unsung architects of Pixar's golden run. As an editor turned director, he brought a craftsman's precision to films that somehow also gutted you emotionally. Toy Story 3 had me, a grown adult, weeping at an incinerator and then a bedroom handoff, and Coco managed to make an entire theater cry about memory and family while celebrating Mexican culture with real care. Two Best Animated Feature Oscars is no fluke. What I admire is how invisible his control is; you never feel the editing, you just feel the story land. He is a quiet master.

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Lee Unkrich is an American film director, editor and animator born in 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio. A longtime Pixar Animation Studios filmmaker, he co-directed Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. and solo-directed Toy Story 3 and Coco, the latter two winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2011 and 2018 respectively. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he is also known for his meticulous editing.

Name (English)

Lee Unkrich

Name (Japanese)

リー・アンクリッチ

Reading

りー・あんくりっち

Born

August 8, 1967 (age 59)

Origin

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Occupation

Film director / Editor / Animator / Voice actor / Screenwriter

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Sheep

University

University of Southern California

Awards & achievements

• Annie Award
• 2011 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
• 2018 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

Filmography / notable works

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/leeunkrich/
• Xhttps://x.com/leeunkrich
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee%20Unkrich
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%83%E3%83%81
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q380920

Tags

• From Ohio
• Film director
• Editor
• Animator

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.