Frank Nissen Biography

Date of Birth: c. 1948

Frank Nissen grew up in Auburn, California and attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, graduating with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

After college, Nissen went to Canada to visit friends and ended up staying for the next 25 years. While visiting Toronto's Cinera animation studios, he received a job offer and decided to relocate. Five years later, Nissen moved to Nelvana Animation, where he was co-director on several half-hour series, including A Cosmic Christmas (1977) and The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978). In addition, he worked in visual and story development on other projects such as George Lucas's Ewoks (1985 - 87) and Droids (1985 - 86) series. Nissen also did story development for the animated feature Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992) for the Japanese studio, T.M.S., and served as character designer, storyboard supervisor and screenwriter for Pippi Longstocking (1997).

Eventually, Nissen relocated to Los Angeles to work for Disney, where he immediately began doing story work on features such as Tarzan (1999) and Dinosaur (2000) and worked as a storyboard artist and production designer on Treasure Planet (2002). He later branched out into animated videos, working on Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004) and Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004).

Nissen made his feature film directorial debut with Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Filmography:

Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)