Kirk DeMicco
Birthdate: May 15, 1969
Birthplace: New York City, New York
Kirk DeMicco (birthname: James Kirk DeMicco) is a director and writer specializing in high-profile studio animated movies. His career started with a spec screenplay sale of (the unproduced) A Day in November in 1995, though before this he had served as an uncredited production assistant on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and then as an assistant production coordinator on writer-director Jeffrey Bell’s Radio Inside (1994).
DeMicco’s first screenwriting credit (with credited co-writers William Schifrin, Jacqueline Feather, and David Seidler) was for Warner Bros. Feature Animation’s animated musical fantasy, Quest for Camelot (1998), which proved a box-office failure. Reuniting with Quest for Camelot director Frederik Du Chau, Kirk DeMicco co-wrote (with Du Chau, screenwriter David Schmidt, and Steven P. Wegner) and co-produced the family sports comedy, Racing Stripes (2005), with Frankie Muniz, David Spade, Steve Harvey, Snoop Dogg, Mandy Moore, Jeff Foxworthy, Joe Pantoliano, Dustin Hoffman, and Whoopi Goldberg, and grossing three times costs with a $91 million take.
DeMicco’s next screenplay credit was on the indie animated feature, Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie (2005), with the voices of Tom Kenny, Christopher Lloyd, Roger Moore, Kenan Thompson, Molly Shannon, and Niecy Nash. DeMicco’s debut as director-writer was the computer-animated sci-fi comedy, Space Chimps (2008), which was produced by DeMicco’s former writing partner, Barry Sonnenfeld, and featured the voices of Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Patrick Warburton, Kristin Chenoweth, and Stanley Tucci, and grossing a good return of $65 million for distributor 20th Century Fox.
Kirk DeMicco’s breakthrough as a writer-director (with writer-director partner Chris Sanders, as well as co-story writer and Monty Python founder John Cleese) arrived with The Croods (2013), DreamWorks Animation’s smash hit animated stone-age comedy, with the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, and Clark Duke, and after a Berlin film festival premiere earning a powerful $587.2 million globally and launching a franchise. DeMicco was credited as co-writer (with Sanders) of the story of the sequel, The Croods: A New Age (2020), with new voice cast members Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann.
DeMicco’s third animated feature as director-writer (with co-writer Quiara Alegria Hudes) was Sony Pictures Animation’s well-reviewed musical comedy, Vivo (2021), with the voice cast of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldana, Juan de Marcos, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Rooker, and Gloria Estefan. Having established himself as a director of successful animated comedies, Kirk DeMicco was picked by DreamWorks Animation as director of the original animation feature, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023), featuring the voices of Lana Condor, Toni Collette, Jane Fonda, Annie Murphy, and Colman Domingo.
Personal Details
Kirk DeMicco was born in New York City and raised in both Wycoff and Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. DeMicco studied at and graduated from Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes. After high school, DeMicco was a double major in economics and political science at the University of Southern California, where he took part in a residency program at the University of Canterbury in the U.K. (and joined a film club), and eventually graduated from USC in 1991.
After USC, DeMicco lived in Italy, where he was a journalist for the Italian film business magazine, Foreign Sales, for three years. DeMicco moved back to the U.S. in 1994 and worked in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency in its New York and Los Angeles offices.
Filmography
actor
Previous (4)
- 2023 | Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
A shy adolescent learns that she comes from a fabled royal family of legendary sea krakens and that her destiny lies in the depths of the waters, which is bigger than she could have ever imagined.
- 2022 |
- 2017 | The Boss Baby
The Boss Baby
A suit-wearing, briefcase-carrying baby pairs up with his 7-year old brother to stop the dastardly plot of the CEO of Puppy Co.
- 2013 | The Croods
The Croods
After their cave is destroyed, a caveman family must trek through an unfamiliar fantastical world with the help of an inventive boy.
Some Facts About Kirk DeMicco
Twins: Kirk DeMicco is the father of twin children.
Budding Filmmaker: DeMicco started making his own movies at age 7 with his parents’ Super-8 camera, using Star Wars action figures.
