Tola and Jack Minkoff, both Jewish, gave birth to Rob Minkoff in Palo Alto, California in 1962. He attended Palo Alto High School as a teen before enrolling at the California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita. In the early 1980s, he graduated from the Character Animation department.
Personal Life
Minkoff met Crystal Kung at an office party in 2003, and they went to the premiere of “Finding Nemo” on their first date. They got engaged on Valentine’s Day in 2006 and married the following year. Minkoff and Kung have two children: a son named Max and a daughter named Zoe. Kung is a 76th-generation descendant of Confucius, the Chinese philosopher.
Crystal and Rob paid $2.3 million for a home in Bel Air in 2010. They demolished the existing structure and proceeded to construct a 7,200-square-foot mansion worth an estimated $14 million today.
Career
While still a student at CalArts, Minkoff was hired as an in-between artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ film “The Black Cauldron.” Following that, he worked as a supervising animator on “The Great Mouse Detective,” and then did character design for “The Brave Little Toaster.” He also wrote the song “Good Company” for the 1988 film “Oliver & Company.” At the end of the decade, Minkoff worked on character animation for “The Little Mermaid,” and between 1989 and 1990, he directed two Roger Rabbit short films, “Tummy Trouble” and “Roller Coaster Rabbit.” Following that, he worked on the pre-production script for 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast,” and directed the 1992 Mickey Mouse short “Mickey’s Audition.”
Minkoff made his directorial debut in 1994, co-directing the Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film “The Lion King” with Roger Allers. When it was released, the film grossed $763 million, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1994 and the highest-grossing animated film at the time. Furthermore, “The Lion King” received four Academy Award nominations, with two wins for Hans Zimmer’s original score and Elton John and Tim Rice’s song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”
Following the success of “The Lion King,” Minkoff directed his first live-action feature, 1999’s “Stuart Little.” Hugh Laurie, Geena Davis, and Jonathan Lipnicki starred in the film, which was loosely based on the 1945 E. B. White novel of the same name, and featured the voices of Michael J. Fox, Nathan Lane, and Jennifer Tilly, among others. “Stuart Little” did well at the box office and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, which it eventually lost to “The Matrix.” Minkoff later directed a sequel to the film, “Stuart Little 2,” which was released in 2002. The following year, he directed “The Haunted Mansion,” a horror comedy based on the Disney theme park attraction. Eddie Murphy, Marsha Thomason, Terence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, and Jennifer Tilly starred in the film.
In 2008, Minkoff released his first non-family film, “The Forbidden Kingdom.” The wuxia film, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, was loosely based on the 16th-century novel “Journey to the West.” It was the first film to feature Chan and Li, two of martial arts cinema’s biggest stars. “The Forbidden Kingdom” was a box office success, grossing $128 million on a $55 million budget. Minkoff followed this up with a film aimed at adults called “Flypaper.” The crime comedy film, starring Ashley Judd and Patrick Dempsey, was a critical and commercial failure, playing in only one theatre.
Following the failure of “Flypaper,” Minkoff returned to children’s animation in 2014 with DreamWorks Animation’s “Mr Peabody & Sherman.” The film, which was based on the characters from the classic television series “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends,” starred Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Stephen Colbert, Allison Janney, Ariel Winter, and Leslie Mann. In 2015, Minkoff began work on a Netflix series based on the film called “Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show.”
Minkoff also directed the Netflix animated original series “Llama Llama,” an adaptation of the late Anna Dewdney picture book franchise. Meanwhile, he co-created “Rainbow Rangers,” a computer-animated series for the Nick Jr. network that follows seven young girls who live in the kingdom of Kaleidoscopia.
Minkoff and Mark Koetsier took over as directors of the animated film “Blazing Samurai” in 2021, succeeding Chris Bailey. The film, which stars Michael Cera, Ricky Gervais, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Yeoh, and George Takei among others, is based on the 1974 Mel Brooks Western comedy “Blazing Saddles.” Minkoff is also set to direct “Chinese Odyssey,” as well as produce “Wolf Totem” and “Silkworms.”
Net Worth
Rob Minkoff is an American filmmaker best known for co-directing “The Lion King” with Roger Allers in 1994. Rob Minkoff has a $30 million net worth. Prior to this, he worked as a character animator on several Disney films. Minkoff has also directed “The Haunted Mansion,” “Mr Peabody & Sherman,” and “Stuart Little” and its sequel.
Facts
| Net Worth | $30 Million |
| Date of Birth | Aug 11, 1962 (60 years old) |
| Place of Birth | Palo Alto |
| Gender | Male |
| Profession | Film Director, Animator, Film Producer, Screenwriter, Television Producer |
| Nationality | United States of America |
