Christopher Meledandri (/mɛlɛdɑːndreɪ/;[stress?] born May 15, 1959) is an American film producer and founder and CEO of Illumination. He previously served as President of 20th Century Fox Animation, and has worked as the producer of the Despicable Me franchise and the Sing franchise.
Meledandri was born in New York City to Roland Meledandri, a men's fashion designer, and Risha Meledandri, an activist, growing up in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He attended Dartmouth College.
Meledandri's first job in the film industry came when he worked as an assistant to executive producer Daniel Melnick on the set of Footloose. Meledandri afterwards was the producer for a series of small films, before working as a producer for the 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings, which was a financial success. Soon after Meledandri was hired by 20th Century Fox, where executives presumed that the success of Cool Runnings showcased Meledandri's ability to produce financially successful family films. After a series of collaborations with filmmaker John Hughes, Meledandri was placed in charge of 20th Century Fox Animation. One of the first films released under Meledandri's tutelage was the animated science fiction film Titan A.E. (2000), a costly box office bomb whose failure almost caused him to be fired, and which caused Fox Animation Studios to be shut down.

Return to Chris Meledandri Autograph Profile