Gary Trousdale (born June 8, 1960) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing films such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). He frequently works with Kirk Wise and Don Hahn. Trousdale was raised in La Crescenta, north of Glendale, California. He had planned to be an architect, but had failed at math. Instead, he had decided to study animation at CalArts, where he studied for three years. After his studying, he applied to work as an animator for Carter/Mendez Productions. He was hired in 1982 to design storyboards and do other animation. He then went to work designing restaurant menus and T-shirts. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)