Nick Park facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nick Park CBE RDI
Park at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2007
Born	Nicholas Wulstan Park (1958-12-06) 6 December 1958 (age 66) Preston, Lancashire, England
Occupation	Director producer screenwriter animator voice actor
Years active	1985–present
Works	Wallace & Gromit Creature Comforts Chicken Run Shaun the Sheep Early Man
Spouse(s)	Mags Connolly ​ (m. 2016)​
Awards	Four Academy Awards (1989, 1993, 1995, 2005)

Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is a famous English filmmaker and animator. He is best known for creating beloved characters like Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Early Man.

Nick Park has been nominated for an Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) seven times. He has won four Oscars for his films: Creature Comforts (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995), and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).

He has also won seven BAFTA Awards. His film A Matter of Loaf and Death won the BAFTA for Best Short Animation and was one of the most-watched TV shows in the UK in 2008. His 2000 movie Chicken Run is the highest-grossing stop motion animated film ever made!

In 1985, Nick Park joined Aardman Animations, a famous animation studio in Bristol, England. His work is so important that he was chosen by artist Peter Blake to be part of a special artwork in 2012. This artwork was a new version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, celebrating British cultural figures.

Queen Elizabeth II honored Nick Park in 1997. She made him a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his amazing contributions to animated films.

Early Life and Inspiration

Nicholas Wulstan Park was born on 6 December 1958 in Preston, Lancashire, England. His mother was a seamstress and his father was an architectural photographer. Nick was the middle child of five siblings.

From a young age, Nick loved drawing cartoons. When he was 13, he started making films using his mother's home camera and cotton bobbins. He also enjoyed inventing things, just like his father. He even sent his homemade inventions to the famous children's TV show Blue Peter.

He studied Communication Arts at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University). Later, he went to the National Film and Television School. It was there that he began working on his very first Wallace and Gromit film, called A Grand Day Out.

Amazing Animation Career

In 1985, Nick Park started working at Aardman Animations in Bristol. He helped animate commercials, including a dance scene for Peter Gabriel's music video "Sledgehammer". He also worked on the Penny cartoons for the TV show Pee-wee's Playhouse.

While working on these projects, he finally finished A Grand Day Out. After that, he created Creature Comforts. This short film featured animated zoo animals whose voices came from real people talking about their homes. Both films were nominated for many awards. A Grand Day Out won a BAFTA Award, but Creature Comforts won Nick his first Oscar.

In the 1990s, Nick Park helped create popular TV advertisements for "Heat Electric." These Creature Comforts ads are still considered some of the best ever shown on British television.

He then made two more Wallace and Gromit short films: The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995). Both of these films also won Oscars!

Nick Park in 2005, promoting Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

In 2000, he directed his first full-length movie, Chicken Run, with Aardman founder Peter Lord. He also oversaw a new series of Creature Comforts for British TV in 2003.

His second feature film, and the first Wallace and Gromit movie, was Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was released in 2005 and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Sadly, in 2005, a fire destroyed one of Aardman Animations' warehouses. Some of Nick Park's creations were lost, including models and sets from Chicken Run. Luckily, many original Wallace and Gromit models and sets, along with the finished films, were safe elsewhere.

In 2007 and 2008, Nick Park worked on an American version of Creature Comforts for TV. In this show, Americans were interviewed, and their voices were used for Aardman's animated animal characters.

In 2007, it was announced that a bronze statue of Wallace and Gromit would be placed in Nick Park's hometown of Preston. The BBC also ordered another Wallace and Gromit short film, which became A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Preston College, where Nick Park studied, has even named its art and design library after him. He has also received a special gold Blue Peter badge.

By 2010, Nick Park had won four Academy Awards. For a long time, he won an Oscar every time he was nominated! This amazing streak ended in 2010 when A Matter of Loaf and Death was nominated but didn't win.

In 2011, Nick Park had his first acting role, voicing himself in an episode of The Simpsons called "Angry Dad: The Movie".

In 2018, he directed another stop-motion film for Aardman, called Early Man. This movie tells the story of a caveman who unites his tribe and accidentally invents football.

In 2019, Nick Park announced a new Wallace and Gromit project. In 2022, he confirmed it would be a television film for the BBC and Netflix, released in 2024. This film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, brought back the villain Feathers McGraw from The Wrong Trousers.

Personal Life

Some people say that Nick Park has started to look and act a bit like Wallace, his famous character! This might be because he often has to show animators exactly how he wants his characters to behave.

Nick Park married Mags Connolly in 2016. Although he wasn't very interested in football when he was younger, he has always supported his hometown team, Preston North End.

Awards and Recognitions

The Wallace and Gromit bronze sculpture in Preston, Lancashire.

In 1996, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath.

On 25 October 1997, Nick Park was given the Honorary Freedom of Preston, his hometown. This is the highest award a city council can give to someone.

In 2016, students at the University of Central Lancashire voted to name one of their new meeting rooms after Nick Park. He was very honored by this recognition.

Creative Influences

Nick Park has shared that he was inspired by many other talented artists. Some of his main influences include Ray Harryhausen, Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin, Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki, Yuri Norstein, Richard Williams, Terry Gilliam, and Bob Godfrey. He especially liked Gilliam's animation in Monty Python, which encouraged him to be "a bit wacky and off the wall." He is also a fan of Gerry Anderson, known for "Supermarionation" in shows like Thunderbirds.

He is a big fan of The Beano comic book. He even guest-edited its 70th-anniversary issue in 2008, calling it his "dream job."

His old English teacher encouraged his filmmaking ideas, but Nick Park has said that the character of Wallace is not based on him.

Filmography

Feature Films

Short Films

Television and Web Series

Music Videos

Commercials

• Burger King commercials
• The Electricity Association

Video Games

• Wallace & Gromit Fun Pack (1996)
• Wallace & Gromit Fun Pack 2 (1999)

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Nick Park para niños