Nicholas Wulstan Park (born on December 6, 1958) is a writer, director, producer and four-time Academy Award-winning English filmmaker at Aardman Animations. He is the creator of Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run and Early Man.
Nick appears in the Alternative Aardman logo from the 1990s where he is making the 1989 - 1998 Aardman logo. Nick also appears in the 1998 - Present Aardman logo where he is animated that only his hand is seen as he presses the Aardman star's switch on its head to make the scenery freeze.
Early life[]
Nick Park was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, and attended Cuthbert Mayne High School (now Our Lady's Catholic High School).
As a child, Park was a big fan of The Beano and The Adventures of Tintin. he also says to have taken inspiration from Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Terry Gilliam as well as Aardman Animations. at age 13, he borrowed some materials (cotton-bobbins and off-cuts) and a camera from his seamstress mother Mary Cecilia-Park to produce his first two stop-motion animated films Walter the Rat Goes Fishing and Walter & The Beanstalk. at the age of 15, he entered a BBC competition for best film by young animators with a homemade short entitled Archie's Concrete Nightmare. although his film did not win, a clip was broadcasted on BBC Two.
He studied Communication Arts at Sheffield Polytechnic and then went to the National Film and Television School, where he started making the first Wallace & Gromit film, A Grand Day Out.
Career[]
In 1985, he joined the staff of Aardman Animations in Bristol, where he worked as an animator on commercial products with his partner. Along with all this, he finally completed A Grand Day Out, which was released in 1989.
Two more Wallace & Gromit shorts, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, followed, both winning Oscars. He then made his first feature-length film, Chicken Run, co-directed with Aardman founder Peter Lord. He also supervised a series of Creature Comforts films for British television in 2002.
His second theatrical feature-length film and the first Wallace & Gromit feature, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, was released on October 5, 2005, to much critical acclaim. The film was rewarded with the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 29th Annual Awards.
Nick Park with the Wallace & Gromit statue, located in Preston.
In September 2007, it was announced that Nick Park had been commissioned to design a bronze statue of Wallace and Gromit, which was to be placed in his home town of Preston.
Aardman Animations filmography[]
Film[]
- Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) - Himself
- Early Man (2018) - Hognob
Television[]
- A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman - As himself
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the Rex the Runt episode "Johnny Saveloy's Undoing", amongst the jars containing chemical essences of various stars is one on the top shelf labelled "Nick Park", as well as two for "Wallace" and "Gromit" (misspelled as "Grommit").
- He and other director Steve Box make a brief cameo in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit as priest photos in Reverend Clement Hedges’s vicarage.
- Nick Park and Peter Lord's names can be spotted in Flushed Away on the Chicken Run DVD back cover's commentary bonus feature.