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, known as Nick Park, is a famous English filmmaker and animator. He was born on December 6, 1958. He created the much-loved characters Wallace & Gromit. He also made popular films like Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Early Man.

Nick Park has been nominated for an Academy Award (also called an Oscar) seven times. He won four of them for 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 was a huge hit in the UK in 2008. His 2000 film Chicken Run is the highest-earning stop-motion animated film ever made.

In 1985, Park joined Aardman Animations, a famous animation studio in Bristol, England. His work in animation is so important that he was chosen by artist Peter Blake to be on a special version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover in 2012. This celebrated British cultural figures. Queen Elizabeth II honored him with a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1997 for his contributions to animated films.

Nick Park's Early Life and Learning

Nick Park was born in Preston, Lancashire, England. His mother, Mary, was a seamstress, and his father, Roger, was a photographer and amateur inventor. Nick was the middle child of five siblings. He grew up in Penwortham and later Walmer Bridge.

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

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

Nick Park's Amazing Career

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

While working on these projects, he finished A Grand Day Out. Then, he created Creature Comforts for a series of short films. Creature Comforts showed animated zoo animals talking about their homes, using real people's voices. Both films were nominated for many awards. A Grand Day Out won a BAFTA Award, and Creature Comforts won his first Academy Award.

In 1990, 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.

Two more Wallace and Gromit short films followed: The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995). Both of these films also won Academy Awards. After that, he made his first full-length movie, Chicken Run (2000). He co-directed this film with Aardman founder Peter Lord. He also oversaw a new Creature Comforts TV series in 2003.

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

His second full-length movie was the first Wallace and Gromit feature film, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was released on October 5, 2005. This film won the Best Animated Feature Academy Award on March 6, 2006.

Sadly, on October 10, 2005, a fire destroyed one of Aardman Animations' storage buildings. Many of Park's creations were lost, including models and sets from Chicken Run. Luckily, some original Wallace and Gromit models and the finished films were safe elsewhere.

In 2007 and 2008, Park worked on a US version of Creature Comforts. This weekly TV series aired on CBS. It featured Americans being interviewed, with their voices lip-synced by Aardman animal characters.

In September 2007, it was announced that Park would design a bronze statue of Wallace and Gromit for his hometown of Preston. In October 2007, the BBC ordered another Wallace and Gromit short film, first called Trouble at Mill, then renamed A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Park studied at Preston College, which has since named its art and design library after him. He has also received a gold Blue Peter badge, a special award from a children's TV show.

By early 2010, Park had won four Academy Awards. He had won an Oscar every time he was nominated, except when he was nominated twice in the same category. This streak ended in 2010 when A Matter of Loaf and Death did not win the best animated short Academy Award.

In February 2011, Park had his first acting role. He voiced himself in a small part on The Simpsons episode "Angry Dad: The Movie". In the episode, a fictional version of Park creates a short film that parodies Wallace and Gromit.

In late 2011, Park directed a music video for "Plain Song" by the band Native and the Name. He also chose this song for his Desert Island Discs radio show.

In April 2013, Park was involved in a British stage show based on Hayao Miyazaki's animated film, Princess Mononoke. He was an executive producer for Shaun the Sheep Movie and had a voice cameo in it.

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

On May 21, 2019, Park announced a new Wallace and Gromit project was being made. In January 2022, he shared that it was in production as a television film for the BBC and Netflix. This film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, was first shown on BBC One on Christmas Day 2024. It also brought back the villain Feathers McGraw from The Wrong Trousers.

Nick Park's Personal Life

Some people say Nick Park has started to look like his character Wallace. This might be because he often shows animators how he wants his characters to move and act.

Nick Park married Mags Connolly on September 16, 2016. Even though he wasn't very interested in football when he was young, he has always supported his hometown team, Preston North End.

Who Inspired Nick Park?

Nick Park has said that many people influenced his work. These include Ray Harryhausen, Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin, Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki, Yuri Norstein, Richard Williams, Terry Gilliam, and Bob Godfrey. He was inspired by Gilliam's animation in Monty Python to be "a bit wacky and off the wall." He also likes 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 on August 2, 2008. He said it was his "dream job." He also picked his favorite classic stories for Classics from the Comics.

His old English teacher encouraged his filmmaking ideas. However, Park has said that the character of Wallace was not based on this teacher.

Nick Park's Works

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 Honors

The Wallace & Gromit bronze sculpture in Preston, Lancashire.

In 1996, the University of Bath gave him an honorary doctorate. This is a special degree given to honor someone's achievements.

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

In 2016, students at the University of Central Lancashire voted to name one of their new meeting rooms after Nick Park. He was born in Preston, where the university is located. Park sent a message saying how honored he was by this.

See also

In Spanish: Nick Park para niños

• List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain