Bruce W. Smith

Bruce W. Smith is an African-American character animator, film director, and television producer, best known as the creator of Disney's "The Proud Family".

He studied animation in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts.

One of the few Black animators working in the industry, Smith got his start as an assistant animator for Bill Meléndez's 1984 "Garfield" television special "Garfield in the Rough". He went on to animate for Baer Animation on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", and in 1992 directed his first feature, "Bébé's Kids". Other notable work for Smith during the mid-1990s included supervising the animation for "The Pagemaster", serving as director and character designer for "", designing the characters for "A Goofy Movie" and "C-Bear and Jamal", and co-directing the animated segments of "Space Jam".

Joining Walt Disney Feature Animation in the late-1990s, Smith served as a supervising animator on three of its films: "Tarzan", "The Emperor's New Groove", "Home on the Range" and "The Princess and the Frog". In 2000, he piloted his series "The Proud Family" to Nickelodeon, who passed on it. The Disney Channel eventually picked the series up, which now airs on that channel and sister channel Toon Disney.

External links

*