Background
Chapman was born in Beason, Illinois as the youngest of five.
animator director screenwriter
Chapman was born in Beason, Illinois as the youngest of five.
She studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in character animation, she was a story trainee on the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid.
In 1998, she became the first woman to direct an animated feature from a major studio, DreamWorks Animation"s The Prince of Egypt. During her summer breaks, she began her professional career working in syndicated television animation. She was one of several key story artists on Disney"s Beauty and the Beast, where she worked closely with future Disney director Roger Allers to define many of the key sequences and motifs used in the film.
She later served as head of story, the first woman to do so in an animated feature film, for Disney"s animated classic The Lion King.
Chapman also worked in story and development for other Disney animated films such as The Rescuers Down Under, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Fantasia 2000. She joined DreamWorks Animation at its inception in the fall of 1994.
Chapman was one of a team of three directors who worked on 1998"s The Prince of Egypt, along with Steve Hickner and Simon Wells. She became the first woman to land a directing role in an animated feature by a major studio.
Three others had helmed independent efforts before her (Lotte Reiniger of The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Joy Batchelor of Animal Farm, and Arna Selznick of The Care Bears Movie).
She also worked on Chicken Run, and several projects in development while at DreamWorks. Chapman moved to Pixar in 2003, where she had a brief stint on Cars before beginning development on and directing Brave. Chapman conceived the project and was announced as the director of the film, making her Pixar"s first female director
In October 2010, however, she was replaced by Mark Andrews following creative disagreements.
There were rumors that she subsequently left Pixar, but she remained on staff until shortly after the release of Brave, and started work as a consultant at Lucasfilm at the end of July 2012, where she helped solve story problems of Strange Magic. When asked whether she will return to Pixar, Chapman responded: "That door is closed.
I made the right decision to leave and firmly closed that door. I have no desire to go back there.
The atmosphere and the leadership doesn’t fit well with medical " She has stated a sequel to Brave is inevitable.
Other credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Shrek, WALL-East, Ratatouille, Up and Toy Story 3.