Darren Walsh (director) facts for kids

Darren Walsh is a talented British director, writer, and animator. He was born on March 26, 1969. Darren is famous for creating the animated series Angry Kid and for directing many popular TV commercials.

He uses different animation styles like stop-motion, live-action, and computer graphics (CG) to bring his ideas to life. Darren lives in London and works with a company called Passion Pictures. He has also worked with Aardman Animations, known for Wallace & Gromit.

Darren Walsh's Animation Journey

Starting Out in Animation

Darren studied animation at the University for the Creative Arts. His student film, "Oozat," was shown on TV and won awards. This showed his early talent in animation. In 1994, he directed a short film called "The Biz."

Creating Angry Kid

Darren Walsh created, directed, and voiced the popular animated series Angry Kid. There were four series of these short films. The BBC asked for them, and they were made at Aardman Animations. Angry Kid won awards, including Best Animated Short in 2003.

Before joining Passion Pictures, Darren also directed other projects. These included "Who Do I Think I Am?" and many commercials. He also made title sequences and channel idents for BBC Television and Channel 4.

Directing Award-Winning Commercials

In 2003, Darren moved to London and joined Passion Pictures. There, he directed many famous advertising campaigns. Some of these were for Sony Bravia, comparethemarket.com, Peperami, Specsavers, BBC iPlayer, Duracell, and National Express Trains.

His animation for the Sony Bravia "Play-Doh" commercial was amazing. It showed hundreds of plasticine rabbits taking over Manhattan. This ad won Best Animation at the D&AD Awards in 2007.

Darren also designed the popular meerkat character, Aleksandr Orlov, for the comparethemarket.com ads. He has directed all the TV commercials for this campaign. These ads won several awards in 2010.

Other Cool Projects

In 2008, Darren directed a funny film trailer called "Flying Penguins." This was an April Fools' Day prank for the BBC. It was made to promote the BBC iPlayer.

His commercials have won over 50 industry and animation awards since 2006.

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

More recently, Darren was the Animation Director for the first part of "His Dark Materials." This is a TV show based on Philip Pullman's famous books.

Where Darren Walsh Lives

Darren Walsh lives in London.