Age, Biography and Wiki
Chris Sanders was born on March 12, 1962, in Colorado. His interest in animation began early after watching Ward Kimball's animated shorts. He attended the California Institute of the Arts, graduating in 1984 with a focus on character animation. Sanders' career includes notable roles at Marvel Comics and Disney, where he worked on projects like The Rescuers Down Under and Beauty and the Beast.
| Occupation | Screenwriter |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 12 March 1962 |
| Age | 63 Years |
| Birth Place | Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Pisces |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Publicly available data on Chris Sanders' height, weight, and other physical measurements is not extensively documented. Information typically emphasizes his professional achievements rather than personal physical attributes.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Chris Sanders is married to Jessica Steele-Sanders, with whom he co-authored the novel "Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist" in 2015. There is limited information available regarding previous relationships or extensive personal life details.
He had been interested in comic strips and filmmaking from an early age. He was the only one of three siblings in his family to borrow his father's Super 8 film camera and, with encouragement from his father towards his drawing interests, make his own comics. He later got interested in animation upon learning about the camera's single-frame feature.
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| Husband | Jessica Steele-Sanders (m. 2015) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Chris Sanders' net worth is not explicitly documented in the available search results. However, his career spanning multiple successful franchises like Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon suggests a substantial income from film and animation projects. His involvement in high-grossing films and franchises contributes significantly to his financial status.
Career, Business and Investments
Chris Sanders has had a remarkable career in animation:
- Disney Years: He worked on Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan, showcasing his versatility in animation.
- Lilo & Stitch: Sanders co-wrote, co-directed, and voiced the character of Stitch, marking a significant milestone in his career.
- DreamWorks: Notable works include co-writing and co-directing How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods, both of which have become successful franchises.
- Recent Projects: Sanders has diversified into live-action with The Call of the Wild and returned to animation with The Wild Robot.
Sanders began his career as a character designer for Jim Henson's Muppet Babies. He then served as lead storyboard artist for Walt Disney Feature Animation, and was a storyboard artist, artistic director, production designer, and character designer on the company's films Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Mulan.
In October 2017, it was announced that Sanders would be directing a new film adaptation of the 1903 Jack London novel The Call of the Wild for 20th Century Fox. The film, his live-action and solo directorial debut, was released in February 2020. The film received mixed critical reception, with a 63% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (as of March 2024), making it the lowest-received film in Sanders's directorial career thus far, and grossed $107.6 million on a budget of $125–$150 million, becoming Sanders's first directorial box-office bomb.
Sanders married author Jessica Steele-Sanders on May 18, 2015, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Together, they wrote an illustrated novel, titled Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist (2015). Sanders was previously thought to be gay by his colleagues in the industry, when in reality that was his gay screenwriting partner Dean DeBlois. In September 2023, Sanders filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences". However, he has since withdrawn the divorce, having celebrated the tenth anniversary of his marriage in 2025. Sanders also previously drew the webcomic Kiskaloo.
Social Network
Chris Sanders maintains a presence on platforms like his official website, where fans can access his artwork and updates on projects. However, specific details about his social media presence are not widely documented.
Christopher Michael Sanders (born March 12, 1962) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. His credits include Lilo & Stitch (2002) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010), both of which he co-wrote and directed with Dean DeBlois; The Croods (2013) with Kirk DeMicco; and The Wild Robot (2024), receiving nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for all of them. In 2020, he made his live-action directorial debut with the adventure-drama The Call of the Wild. He created the character Stitch in 1985, wrote the film's story, and voiced Stitch in almost all his media appearances.
In 1985, Sanders created a character named "Stitch" for an unsuccessful children's book pitch. When Sanders was the head storyboard artist for Disney Feature Animation, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner decided that, in the wake of a number of high-profile and large-budget Disney animated features during the mid-1990s, the studio might try its hand at a smaller and less expensive film. Chris Sanders was approached by Thomas Schumacher to pitch that idea, and Sanders reused the "Stitch" character he came up with. The storyline required a remote, non-urban location, so Sanders chose Kauaʻi as the location. Stitch became the central character of the 2002 film Lilo & Stitch, which Sanders co-directed and co-wrote with Dean DeBlois. Sanders would also end up voicing the character he created for the film. The film's commercial and critical success spawned a franchise with three sequel films and three television series, with Sanders reprising his role of Stitch throughout the original 2002–06 run of the franchise (Sanders did not reprise his role for the English dub of the anime Stitch! or the English-language-produced Chinese animated series Stitch & Ai, with Ben Diskin taking over the role for both series), as well in several later Disney crossover works such as Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, and the Disney Infinity series.
In the late 1980s, Sanders created an allegorical picture book entitled The Big Bear Aircraft Company, with the subheading "A book for the big retreat" clarifying that it was created for a Disney offsite event. The Big Bear Aircraft Company is a thinly disguised version of Disney itself, and the book is critical of the creative process at the company, which prioritized "big ideas, figuring they will be big successes" and noted that if proposed aircraft (i.e., movie ideas) "don't look the same as the ones [that were] built before, [the boss, Big Bear] gets uncomfortable." After handing each idea pitched by the "visual engineer" to a writer who "likes airplanes" but "has actually never worked on one before, and couldn't tell you for sure what makes one fly", the story states the assigned writer "is guaranteed of making the same mistakes every time. He will make his airplane look like every one he's seen before ..." In the end, the head of the company, Big Bear, gets an airplane that is "a lot like last year's; not very inspiring and not very memorable. But people bought it before, and they'll probably buy it again. By playing it safe, he's insured his company's survival." However, since it is not the only aircraft company, these policies are destined to leave the company vulnerable to more imaginative competitors "with its wings of good reputation all shot off." The story concludes that Big Bear should instead give the visual engineers "the two things they need to do their job: Bear's trust and time" to allow smaller, more innovative ideas to flourish. Years later, to explain his motivation regarding the piece, Sanders wrote about his concern over "the ever-growing complexity of our films, and what I saw as an emerging pattern they were all cut from", citing the example that during the story development for Mulan, one of the major concerns was the manner of the villain's death rather than the idea that the villain had to die at all. This in turn motivated him to develop Lilo & Stitch, which he summarized as "a story about a villain who becomes a hero."
By March 2007, Sanders had moved to DreamWorks Animation and had then taken over as director on Crood Awakening (later renamed to The Croods), a project previously in co-production with Aardman Animations before their departure from DreamWorks. At the time, Sanders said about the move: "I've been so anxious to start working on things, and so I talked to a lot of people... I like the way DreamWorks looks at animation. Animation still has a lot of different places to go, and I don't want to miss out on a chance to try some new things with it."
After completing How to Train Your Dragon, Sanders returned to The Croods, which was released on March 22, 2013. He shared directing and writing credits with Kirk DeMicco, who had joined in the middle of production. The film proved to be a success, grossing over $500 million. Sanders and DeMicco then worked on The Croods sequel for three and a half years, before its cancellation in late 2016. However, the sequel was revived in September 2017, although with Joel Crawford replacing both Sanders and DeMicco as director. After the sequel was out, now titled The Croods: A New Age, Sanders and DeMicco were both credited for the story while Sanders reprised his role as Belt.
Education
Sanders graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 1984, focusing on character animation. His educational background significantly influenced his career path in animation.
He went to Arvada High School in Arvada, Colorado. He initially wanted to take art classes at the school, but was dissuaded when he asked the art teacher to teach him cartooning, only for the teacher to reply, "Comics aren't art." Sanders later attended the California Institute of the Arts, graduating in 1984.
