Jules Engel

Jules Engel was born in Budaspest, Hungary in 1909. He and his family immigrated to Chicago area when he was thirteen. In high school, Engel was an avid track runner and decided to pursue a scholarship in track from either USC or UCLA. In 1937, he moved to Los Angeles area and eventually settled at the Chouinard Art Institute, where he made fundamental connections to Disney Studios jump starting his career in animation.

As his artistic career developed he explored various mediums of painting, film making, sculpture, graphic design, set design, and animation. He is the founding director of the Experimental Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts, where e taught until his last days, serving as an inspiration for many generations of animators.