Hal Hickel
Animation Director, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Oscar, BAFTA winner
Hal Hickel is one of Industrial Light & Magic’s most experienced Animation Supervisors. After joining the company in 1996 as an Animator on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, he graduated to Lead Animator on Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, then Animation Supervisor on Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
Hickel has since worked on multiple award-winning films including Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He also served as Animation Director on the Academy Award-winning Rango, ILM's first animated feature. Most recently, Hickel has been Production Animation Supervisor on all three seasons of The Mandalorian, and Consulting Animation Supervisor on The Book of Boba Fett.
Hickel began his professional career as a clay animator and motion-control operator at Will Vinton Studios, after studying Film Graphics at CalArts. He received both an Oscar and a BAFTA Award for his work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. He has also received two Primetime Emmy Awards, both for The Mandalorian, plus multiple other award wins and nominations.