Kelly Asbury

Kelly Asbury is a man of many talents. Born in Beaumont in the state of Texas on January 15, 1960, he is a director, author, and screenwriter and has also lent his voice to a few animated films. He is perhaps widely known for directing the first three movies of the “Shrek” franchise. He served as a story artist for the first film of that series, titled Shrek. He had a more prominent part to play in the second movie “Shrek 2”, as he not only directed the movie but also lent his voice to the picture as well. He also voiced two separate characters in “Shrek the Third”.

Aside from the first three Shrek films, he is also well known for his involvement in the animated film “Gnomeo and Juliet”.  He not only wrote the story for that movie but directed it and was the person responsible for the screenplay as well. Additionally, he also voiced a character in the film. The movie is a spoof of the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet and was somewhat hit and miss with the critics but did very well in box office earnings despite not being a big-budget film that received a ton of promotion. The film was also nominated in four categories for the Annie Awards although it didn’t win in any of those categories. This included two nominations for Asbury himself.

He worked at "Walt Disney Animation" for the best part of 12 years. During this time, he served as a member of the story team for films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story. Additionally, he worked on the stories for two other Disney projects: Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen in the years 2012 and 2013 respectively. Both of these films went on to have great success both critically and commercially. Aside of movies, Kelly Asbury is also known for his work in writing and animating children’s books. He has authored and illustrated twelve children’s books.

Asbury is quite passionate about the art form of ventriloquism even though he doesn’t partake in it on a practical basis. He has authored a book called Dummy Days, which explores the lives of some early American ventriloquists.

For the last two years, he has been working on the animated film titled “Smurfs: The Lost Village”. The movie, which is a reboot of the original series, is currently set for a release on 7^th April 2017.