Balda was born in Tucson, Arizona, to a Maltese mother. He graduated from California Institute of the Arts in the early 1990s and dropped out after two years for a job he was offered.
Career[]
During his time at CalArts, Balda was hired by LucasArts as an intern to create the animated opening credit sequence for the graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle.
He started his career as an animator by working at Industrial Light & Magic, in the films including 1994's The Mask as graphics animator, 1995's Jumanji as animation supervisor, and in 1996's Mars Attacks! as character animator. He also worked at Weta Digital once in New Zealand, on the 1996 film The Frighteners, he animated the Grim Reaper for the film. Later Balda started working at Pixar, and his works included 1998's A Bug's Life as an additional animator, 1999's Toy Story 2 as the directing animator, and 2001's Monsters, Inc. as animator.
In 2004, Balda moved to Universal Feature Animation, where he worked on several Universal animated films including 2004's Computeropolis as supervising animator, 2006's Me & Mobo as layout supervisor, and 2007's Computeropolis 2 as supervising animator. In 2010, he joined Universal Animation's newly-formed sister company Illumination Entertainment in Paris, and worked in the 2010s Despicable Me as the head of layout. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools.
In 2012, Balda co-directed the Illumination animated film for his directorial debut The Lorax along with Chris Renaud, starring Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Ed Helms, and Taylor Swift. The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012 by Universal Pictures and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million.
In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, Minions, along with Pierre Coffin. The film's voice cast included Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, and Michael Keaton. The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015 by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion.
Aero (2000) • Print 3D Errors (2004) • Computeropolis: A Technical Ride (2006) • Just Sommi (2006) • Peri and Nicky Get a Flu (2007) • The Sounds of the Ocean (2009) • The Chat (2011) • King on the Loose (2012) • Go Party! (2012) • How to Act Like a Player (2014) • No More Mr. Yeti (2015) • Camp Jamo (2016) • Noodles (2016) • Getting Annoyed (2016) • Zip (2017) • Busho's Guide to Cool Things (2017) • Keena's Magical Journey (2017) • Neon (2018) • Zola's Makeover (2018) • Monkey Business (2018) • Mine! (2019) • Birth (2019) • Falia's Challenge (2020) • Virtual Vinna (2020)
Franchises
Ama (1997–present) • Paint World (1999–present) • Computeropolis (2004–present) • Superfancy Lady (2011–present) • Paradoria (2015–present) • Imagimals (2017–present) • Amazing Academy (2017–present)
Despicable Me (2010) • Hop (2011) • The Lorax (2012) • Despicable Me 2 (2013) • Minions (2015) • The Secret Life of Pets (2016) • Sing (2016) • Despicable Me 3 (2017) • The Grinch (2018) • The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)
Upcoming films
Agent Chrysocolla (2020) • Minions: The Rise of Gru (2021) • Sing 2 (2021) • Untitled animated Mario film (2022)
Short films
Home Makeover (2010) • Orientation Day (2010) • Banana (2010) • Brad & Gary (2011) • Phil's Dance Party (2012) • Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (2012) • Wagon Ho! (2012) • Forces of Nature (2012) • Serenade (2012) • Puppy (2013) • Panic in the Mailroom (2013) • Training Wheels (2013) • Cro Minion (2015) • Competition (2015) • Binky Nelson Unpacified (2015) • Mower Minions (2016) • Norman Television (2016) • Weenie (2016) • Gunter Babysits (2017) • Love at First Sight (2017) • Eddie's Life Coach (2017) • The Secret Life of Kyle (2017) • Yellow is the New Black (2018) • The Dog Days of Winter (2018) • Santa's Little Helpers (2019) • Super Gidget (2019) • Minion Scouts (2019)
Franchises
Despicable Me (2010–present) • Minions (2015–present) • The Secret Life of Pets (2016–present) • Sing (2016–present)
