Duke Johnson is an American film director who specializes in
stop-motion animation. He currently serves as a director and junior
partner for Dino Stamatopoulos's animation production studio Starburns
Industries in Burbank, California.Johnson was raised in St. Louis,
Missouri, where he attended high school at St. John Vianney High
School, and attended a summer film course at Columbia College Chicago
between his second and third years of high school. He graduated from
the film school at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York
University, where he spent a semester studying animation in Prague.
After graduating, he spent three years working as a waiter in a New
York restaurant before moving to Los Angeles, where he obtained a
Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from the AFI Conservatory in
2006. At AFI, he directed his student film Marrying God, for which he
won 8 awards for best student film or best short film.Johnson has been
nominated for Annie Awards in 2011 and 2012 for directing stop-motion
episodes of shows such as Mary Shelley's Frankenhole and Community. In
2016, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
in the 88th Academy Awards for co-directing the stop-motion
comedy-drama film Anomalisa with Charlie Kaufman.
stop-motion animation. He currently serves as a director and junior
partner for Dino Stamatopoulos's animation production studio Starburns
Industries in Burbank, California.Johnson was raised in St. Louis,
Missouri, where he attended high school at St. John Vianney High
School, and attended a summer film course at Columbia College Chicago
between his second and third years of high school. He graduated from
the film school at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York
University, where he spent a semester studying animation in Prague.
After graduating, he spent three years working as a waiter in a New
York restaurant before moving to Los Angeles, where he obtained a
Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from the AFI Conservatory in
2006. At AFI, he directed his student film Marrying God, for which he
won 8 awards for best student film or best short film.Johnson has been
nominated for Annie Awards in 2011 and 2012 for directing stop-motion
episodes of shows such as Mary Shelley's Frankenhole and Community. In
2016, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
in the 88th Academy Awards for co-directing the stop-motion
comedy-drama film Anomalisa with Charlie Kaufman.
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