William Joyce

William Edward Joyce (born December 11, 1959) is an American writer, illustrator, and filmmaker.

He has achieved worldwide recognition as an author, artist and pioneer in the digital and animation industry.

He has written and illustrated over 50 children’s books and novels which have been translated into over 40 languages.

His first book “Tammy and the Gigantic Fish” by James and Katherine Gray was published by Harper & Row (now Harper Collins) in 1983.

He began his film career as a concept artist for the 1995 hit film Toy Story and has since been active in both animation and live action.

Joyce created conceptual characters for Disney/Pixar's feature films Toy Story (1995) and A Bug's Life (1998).

He subsequently landed credits on the films including A Bug's Life (1998) and Robots (2005).

In 2001 Pixar founder John Lasseter introduced Joyce to animation director Chris Wedge.

At this time Wedge’s fledging animation studio Blue Sky was completing its Oscar winning short film Bunny and hoped to begin developing feature animated films, which they soon did with the Ice Age franchise.

In 2002, after Joyce and Ice Age director Chris Wedge attempted to adapt one of Joyce's book Santa Calls into a feature film Santa Calls, during that process they both came up with the idea for the computer-animated feature film Robots (2005).

Besides being one of the creators, Joyce also served as a producer and production designer.

In 2005, Joyce and Reel FX launched a joint venture, Aimesworth Amusements, to produce feature films, video games and books.

The new company announced plans to make three feature films: The Guardians of Childhood, The Mischevians, and Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo.

The first of those projects, The Guardians of Childhood was developed by DreamWorks Animation into the feature film, Rise of the Guardians.

He wrote the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, which was adapted into a feature film by Disney as Meet the Robinsons (2007), having direct involvement in the film.

Among his many awards, Joyce has won 6 Emmys, 3 Annies and an Academy award for his short film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011).

Joyce was named by Newsweek magazine as “one of the 100 people to watch in the new millennium.

His feature films, all based on his books, include Epic, Rise of the Guardians, Robots, and Meet the Robinsons.

His television series include the groundbreaking computer animated Rolie Polie Olie for which he was creator and showrunner.

He has also painted numerous covers for the New Yorker Magazine.

His new company, Howdybot Studios, is focused on Joyce's stories in a variety of mediums and media.

Joyce’s latest short film Mr. Spam Gets a New Hat (2022) has won awards at a number of film festivals in the U.S. He is also in pre-production on an animated version of The Great Gatsby.

Both projects are in collaboration with DNEG Studios and Epic Games.

His novel Ollie's Odyssey was adapted into a live action/CG limited series on Netflix in August 2022.

He has written and illustrated over 50 children's books including George Shrinks, Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo, Rolie Polie Olie, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs and A Day with Wilbur Robinson, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, The Guardians of Childhood series and many others.

After the retirement of his longtime editor there Laura Gerringer, in 2011 Joyce moved his backlist and all subsequent books to Simon & Schuster where his editor is Caitlyn Dlouhy.

The story app of Morris Lessmore received overwhelmingly positive attention and in August 2011 briefly dislodged Angry Birds as the bestselling app in the world.

It was voted into the app hall of fame soon after.

Joyce has received three Emmys for Rolie Polie Olie, a Canadian animated television series based on his series of children's books that aired on Disney Channel (part of Playhouse Disney block) and is currently on Disney+.

His second television series, George Shrinks, used to air daily on PBS stations.

He has received three additional Emmys for other animated projects.

Since being at Simon & Schuster Mr. Joyce has produced a number of bestselling titles, including The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore which debuted at Number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in July 2012, a position it held for several weeks.

Morris Lessmore has been translated into over 40 languages and was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best children's books of all time.

Morris Lessmore is the most expansive and experimental of Joyce’s stories.

With his company Moonbot Studios, Joyce along with his partners, produced the Lessmore story in a variety of media and mediums simultaneously.

A short film was in production (using handmade miniature sets) while the book was being illustrated (along with Joe Bluhm) and an interactive story app was being devised.

It was released in 2012 and is based on Joyce's book series and the short film Man in the Moon, directed by Joyce.

Joyce was originally slated to direct the film, however early in the production his daughter Mary Katherine, his wife Elizabeth and his sister Cecile were diagnosed with terminal illnesses.

He continued on as an executive producer along with his friend Guillermo del Toro.

At the beginning of the end credits Dreamworks dedicated the film to Joyce’s daughter who died before the film's release.