Darren Walsh (director) facts for kids

Darren Walsh (born on March 26, 1969) is a British director, writer, animator, and voice artist. He is famous for creating animated films and commercials. He uses different ways to make his animations, like stop-motion (where objects are moved slightly between photos), live-action (filming real people), and computer graphics (CG). Darren Walsh lives in London and works with a company called Passion Pictures. He also used to work for Aardman Animations, which made films like Wallace and Gromit.

Darren Walsh's Career

Darren Walsh studied animation at the University for the Creative Arts. His graduation film, "Oozat" (made in 1993), was shown on TV and won awards. This film used special animation techniques.

In 1994, he directed a short film called "The Biz."

Creating Angry Kid

Darren Walsh created, directed, and even did the voices for a popular series of animated short films called Angry Kid. The BBC asked for these films, and they were made at Aardman Animations. Angry Kid won awards, including Best Animated Short at a film festival in Toronto in 2003.

Famous Commercials and Projects

Darren Walsh has directed many well-known TV commercials. In 2001 and 2002, he directed two adverts for Tennent's lager, which won awards. He also directed commercials and TV show openings for BBC Television and Channel 4.

After joining Passion Pictures in 2003, he directed big advertising campaigns for brands like Sony Bravia, comparethemarket.com, Peperami, Specsavers, BBC iPlayer, Duracell, and National Express Trains.

Award-Winning Animations

His animation work on the Sony Bravia "Play-Doh" commercial was very popular. In this advert, hundreds of plasticine (clay) rabbits took over Manhattan. It won an award for Best Animation in 2007.

He also designed the famous Russian meerkat character, Aleksandr Orlov, for the comparethemarket.com adverts. Darren Walsh has directed all the TV commercials for this campaign, which have won many awards.

In 2008, he directed a funny film trailer called "Flying Penguins." This was an April Fools' Day joke for the BBC to promote their BBC iPlayer service.

Overall, his commercials have won more than 50 awards since 2006!

Work in Movies and TV Shows

In 2011, Darren Walsh animated the clockwork mouse for the movie Hugo. This movie was nominated for 11 Oscars! In the same year, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of the Creative Arts.

More recently, he was the Animation Director for the first part of His Dark Materials. This is a TV show based on Philip Pullman's popular book trilogy.

Personal Life

Darren Walsh lives in Bray, Ireland and has two children.