Kelly Adam Asbury (January 15, 1960 – June 26, 2020) was an American animated film director, screenwriter, voice actor, published children's book author/illustrator, and non-fiction author. He was best known for directing animated films, including Shrek 2 and Gnomeo & Juliet.
Early life[]
Asbury was born in Beaumont, Texas and attended Lamar University for two years before transferring to the renowned California Institute of the Arts in 1980, where he studied animation and film making.
Career[]
Asbury got his start at Walt Disney Feature Animation from 1983 to 1995, and contributed storyboards for several animated films including The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, as well as Pixar's first feature film, Toy Story. In 1993, he was the assistant art director on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
In 1995, he began working for DreamWorks Animation, and directed two Academy Award-nominated feature films, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Shrek 2 (2004). In addition to directing, Asbury provided some of the extra voices in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third.
Kelly Asbury directed and co-wrote the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), for which he also provided the voices of the tiny Red Goon Gnomes. He was nominated for two Annie Awards for directing and co-writing that film.
In 2003, he wrote a non-fiction book titled Dummy Days, which is a biography of five 20th century ventriloquists. He was the author and illustrator of twelve published children's books, including Rusty's Red Vacation, Bonnie's Blue House and Yolanda's Yellow School.
In mid-2011 to mid-2012, Asbury briefly returned to Disney to contribute storyboards to Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen. He recently directed Smurfs: The Lost Village for Sony Pictures Animation and UglyDolls for STX Entertainment.
Personal life[]
Asbury resided in Encino, Los Angeles. He died from abdominal cancer in Encino on June 26, 2020, aged 60.
Disney Filmography[]
- The Black Cauldron - 1985 - In between Artist
- Sport Goofy in Soccermania - 1987 - Layout artist
- The Little Mermaid - 1989 - Visual Development Artist
- The Rescuers Down Under - 1990 - Character Designer, Storyboard Artist, and Visual Development
- Roller Coaster Rabbit - 1990 - Art director
- Beauty and the Beast - 1991- Story
- The Nightmare Before Christmas - 1993 - Assistant Art Director
- Toy Story- 1995 - Story
- James and the Giant Peach - 1996 - Artistic Supervisor
- Gnomeo & Juliet - 2011 - Director, Story, and Screenplay, voice of Red Goon Gnomes
- Wreck-It Ralph - 2012 - Story artist
- Frozen - 2013 - Additional story artist
- Quack Pack - Storyboard artist