Roger Allers

Roger Allers (born 1949 in Rye, New York) is an Oscar-nominated American film director, screenwriter, storyboard artist, animator and Tony-nominated playwright. He is most well known for directing the highest-grossing 2D animated film of all time, The Lion King, for Disney, and for writing the Broadway adaptation, The Lion King. Allers became hooked on animation at the age of five after seeing Disney's classic feature film Peter Pan. Deciding that he wanted to become a Disney artist and work with Walt Disney himself, a few years later he sent away for a do-it-yourself Disney animation kit. However, in 1966, when he heard of Walt Disney's death, Allers, by then a high school student, grew discouraged about attaining his dream. He went on to receive a degree in fine arts from Arizona State University. But it was after auditing a class at Harvard that he found his interest in animation renewed. He landed a job with Lisberger Studios, where he worked on the animation end for projects such...