Ben was born and raised in St. Louis Missouri. His talent for visual storytelling was revealed very early on. While still in high school, he created a series of animated shorts that aired on a late-night cable channel, and he wrote and illustrated a weekly comic strip for the small town newspaper.
It was this work that led him to attend the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in character animation. Ben’s student film, The men’s best friend, about The Man’s Companion in the Garden of Eden, a dog, won the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ top student Emmy award. The short film toured the world in theaters in Spike and Mike Animation Festival and aired in heavy rotation on MTV of the network Sushi cartoon show.
About Animation Story Builder
Ben’s talent for storytelling was spotted by Oscar-winning Pixar director Brenda Chapman who recruited Ben to DreamWorks SKG. Ben was the first intern in history on The Prince of Egypt and used as a live action reference by the animators of the Moses character. Well was recruited by Walt Disney Feature Animation, where for the next ten years he was a key member of the animated feature story team on 2D animated features: The Emperor’s New Groove, House on the Range and The great Piglet movie. The work on these films impressed the studio, and Ben became the first head of Disney Television history. Responsible for improving the quality of DTV suites. Ben was responsible for the story on Baby 2, which earned a theatrical release, and he was given the role of supervising director on Brother Bear 2. This film only had an eighteen-month schedule in total. When completed, it was the top-selling DVD in August 2009 and rated higher on Rotten Tomato than its predecessor.
After ten years at Disney, Ben was ready to push the boundaries of storytelling and create more diverse characters for animation. This landed him the opportunity to work with producer Tim Burton, as story lead on the post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy. 9. Ben’s work on this film caught the attention of George Lucas who hired Ben to work at Lucas Film at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California. Ben has collaborated with Mr. Lucas on emerging and innovative cinematic technology and script development on film strange magic.
Ben collaborated with Charles “Chuck” Roven, who hired Ben to adapt the popular animated series, gatchaman for modern audiences. Ben also collaborated with producer Tyler Perry to turn his wildly popular character Madea into animation.
Ben’s continued passion for pushing the boundaries of storytelling led him to Lionsgate Entertainment where he was supervising the director on the unconventional love story. Alpha and Omega, with late Dennis Hopper. This low-budget, $13 million indie animated feature film grossed over $50 million worldwide and launched the Alpha and Omega franchise consisting of nine sequels to become the brand of highest-grossing original animation from Lionsgate Films.
This attracted Alpha Group, a Chinese multinational entertainment conglomerate, which enlisted Ben as the story’s chief executive. In his new executive role, Ben was tasked with creating a comprehensive slate of high-end animated feature original projects for global audiences, while recruiting for the studio.
Ben was attached as story lead on the feature to favor for Blue Sky Studios where he collaborated with Oscar, Grammy, Tony, and Golden Globe-winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, until Disney acquired and dismantled the studio. Currently, Ben is responsible for the Peanuts story. For Auld Lang Syne, the first Peanuts holiday special in ten years and an Annie Award nominee for Best Special Production. Ben is also responsible for the story of the 49th Peanuts Holiday Special. Both specials are in collaboration with the Charles Shultz family and the creative development team at Apple TV+.
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