Lee Unkrich is an American
director,
film editor and
screenwriter. He is a longtime member of the creative team at
Pixar, where he started in 1994 as a
film editor. He later began directing, first as co-director of
Toy Story 2. After co-directing
Monsters, Inc., and
Finding Nemo, Unkrich made his solo directorial debut with
Toy Story 3, for which he won the
Academy Award for
Best Animated Film in 2011. Unkrich is the 2011 recipient of University of Southern California's Mary Pickford Distinguished Alumni Award recognizing alumni contributions to the cinematic arts. With the award, Unkrich joins a list of distinguished USC alumni including
Robert Zemeckis,
Walter Murch,
Jon Landau,
Gary Rydstrom and
Jay Roach.