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Karen Disher
Karen Disher.jpg
Disher in 2015
Born
Karen Beth Disher
Alma mater Tisch School of the Arts
Occupation Film director, storyboard artist
Years active 1993–present
Employer MTV Animation (1994-2002)
Blue Sky Studios (2002–2021)
Spire Animation Studios (2021–present)
Spouse(s)
Robert Partington
(m. 2001)

Karen Beth Disher is an American film director and storyboard artist. Disher is best known for her work at MTV Animation, where she was the chief character designer and supervising director for the animated series Daria (1997–2002) following her previous work as a layout artist for Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997).

Disher is also known for work as a story artist at Blue Sky Studios, an in-house studio at 20th Century Animation, in which she worked on several films, including many in the Ice Age franchise.

Life and career

Disher studied traditional 2D animation at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. After graduation, she joined MTV Animation as a layout artist on Beavis and Butt-head. She then designed the main characters and was the supervising director on the hit series Daria. Meanwhile, she directed two TV feature-length installments in the series, Is It Fall Yet? in 2000 and the follow-up Is It College Yet? in 2002. She then joined Blue Sky Studios, where she worked as a story artist on many animated films, including Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Horton Hears a Who!, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, The Peanuts Movie, and Ferdinand. She was also the head of story on Rio, and directed a short animated film Surviving Sid and a television special Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, both part of the Ice Age franchise. In addition to storyboarding and directing, she lent her voice to some minor characters in the films she worked on, most notably to Scratte in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

In 2018, Disher was tapped to co-direct Blue Sky's first feature-length musical, "Foster", based on an original story written by Disher, co-director Steve Martino, and Tim Federle, with songs to be written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. This project was cancelled due to the closure of Blue Sky in 2021.

Disher joined Spire Animation Studios in 2021 as Creative Director, Development and is a founding member of the studio's brain trust, the "Creative Cadre".

Personal life

In 2001, Disher married Robert Todd Partington, then a supervisor of computer graphics and animation technologies for MTV Networks.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1996 Beavis and Butt-head Do America key pose artist
1999 Life presenter, animator
2000 Is It Fall Yet? director/original character development/supervising director
2002 Is It College Yet? director/original character development/animation director
2005 Robots storyboard artist
2006 Ice Age: The Meltdown
2008 Horton Hears a Who! Who Kid
Surviving Sid (short film) S'more director
2009 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Scratte storyboard artist
2011 Rio Mother Bird head of story
2012 Ice Age: Continental Drift Scratte storyboard artist
2013 Epic
2014 Rio 2
2015 The Peanuts Movie
2016 Ice Age: Collision Course
2017 Ferdinand
2019 Spies in Disguise additional story artist, Blue Sky senior creative team

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1994–1997 Beavis and Butt-head layout artist
1997–2002 Daria Sally supervising director/original character designer
2011 Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Molehog director

Video games

Year Title Notes
2000 Daria's Inferno creative consultant
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