- Source of Wealth: Film
- Age: 60
- Birth Place: New York City, New York, U.S. A.
- Marital Status: Married (Leslie Benziger)
- Full Name: Christopher Meledandri
- Nationality: American
- Date of Birth: May 15, 1959
- Occupation: Film Producer
- Education: Dartmouth College
- Children: 2 (Nicholas and James)
The American film producer who is also the CEO, owner, and founder of Illumination is Christopher Meledandri, He became famous as the Despicable Me franchise’s producer.
Before he joined Fox, Meledandri became the president of Walt Disney’s Dawn Steel Pictures. Here, he served as Cool Runnings’ executive producer.
During Meledandri’s tenure in 20th Century Fox Animation, he was able to produce Ever After: A Cinderella Story and assisted Fox in becoming a major player when it comes to animated feature films. He eventually led to the acquisition of the fledgling commercial/visual effects house BlueSky Studios by Fox. This allowed him to build a successful production of animated features. He eventually oversaw the business and creative operations of Blue Sky which eventually became the wholly owned CGI studio of Fox. While he was at the studio, Meledandri supervised and executive produced movies such as Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Robots, Ice Age, and Ice Age: The Meltdown. He was also able to produce a couple of animated shorts No Time for Nuts and Gone Nutty that eventually got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
On the 28th of April 2016, NBC Universal announced that they will acquire the competing studio DreamWorks Animation and announced that Meledandri will oversee both DreamWorks and Illumination until the merger becomes complete. However, Meledandri declined to oversee DreamWorks and chose to work as the studio’s consultant.