Born 1958. Park grew up in Preston’s Greenland estate and had a keen interest in drawing cartoons from a young age. He then went on to study at Preston’s College and studied animation at the National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire. In recognition of his achievements, Preston’s College named their library the Nick Park Library Learning Centre.

After visiting Bristol for two summers to help Aardman Animations with their work for BBC, Park moved to Bristol and joined the company full time in 1985. Here he worked on various projects including the multi-award-winning video for Peter Gabriel’s music video ‘Sledgehammer’. Park made his name with his first short film series success ‘Creature Comforts’ which won an Oscar® in 1990. He continued to go on to make award-winning stop motion short films like ‘A Grand Day Out’ (1989), ‘The Wrong Trousers’ (1993), ‘A Close Shave’ (1995), and ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ (2008).

Taking a natural step into feature films, Nick went on to make the ever-popular ‘Chicken Run’ (2000). This saw Mel Gibson as one of the main character voices and took home a BAFTA for Best British Film. Nick then teamed up with writers Steve Box and Bob Baker and, after five years, released ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ (2005). The film was number one at the box office worldwide for three weeks in a row and saw Park winning another Oscar®.

(Ref: Visit Preston)