Pierre Coffin
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Coffin in 2017
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| Born | Pierre-Louis Padang Coffin (1967-03-16) 16 March 1967 (age 57) |
| Occupation(s) | Animator, director, writer, producer, voice actor |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Known for | Voice of the Minions in the Despicable Me franchise |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Yves Coffin Nh. Dini |
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Pierre-Louis Padang Coffin (born 16 March 1967)[1] is a French animator, director, producer, writer, and voice actor. He is best known for co-directing four films in the Despicable Me franchise and being the primary voice of the Minions, which won him the Kids Family Award at the 10th Seiyu Awards.[2] He also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Despicable Me 2.
Coffin was born on 16 March 1967 in France to Nh. Dini, an Indonesian novelist and Yves Coffin, a French diplomat. He has a sister, Marie-Claire. During his childhood, they often moved across Asia, living in Cambodia and Japan, before settling in a Parisian suburb in the 1970s. Growing up, their father forbade them watching television, considering it too passive. Instead, Coffin drew, read and listened to music a lot. Although he had never considered a career in the arts, some talented friends of his, who were better at drawing than he, inspired him to work on improving his skills.[3]
Between 1985 and 1988, he studied cinema at the Paris-Sorbonne University. While attending his military service, he withdrew to take the entrance exam for the Gobelins animation school in Paris. Passing, he studied there the 2D course from 1990 to 1993.[4] Then he moved to Amblin, the 2D London-based facility, where he worked for one year as a junior animator on the Steven Spielberg-executive-produced We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story.[3] He then started as a freelance animator in the French CGI studio Ex Machina where he worked as an animator and eventually animation supervisor. Pierre Coffin's directorial career began with a short film named Pings in 1997.[4] He then started to collaborate by doing commercials with Passion Pictures Paris and Mac Guff. He created the characters Pat & Stan for the titular TF1 TV series.[5] In 2010 he completed, with Chris Renaud, the feature CGI-animated movie Despicable Me for Universal.
Coffin directed Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, with Renaud, Despicable Me 3 and the Despicable Me spin-off, Minions with Kyle Balda.[6] In which he also served as the voice of various Minions. Coffin recorded several different dubs of the Minion voices for Minions in order to better appeal to different national markets, mixing in varying local words depending on the country.[7]
Coffin is currently developing two webseries for Illumination that will debut on TikTok and later on YouTube, titled Who's Who and Bones Story.[8]
Coffin has two children.[3]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Voice role | Notes |
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| 1993 | We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story | No | No | No | No | Inbetween Artist | |
| 2003 | Gary's Day | Yes | No | No | No | Short film | |
| 2010 | Despicable Me[9] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Tim the Minion, Bob the Minion, Mark the Minion, Phil the Minion, Stuart the Minion, The Minions | |
| Home Makeover | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Minions | Short film included on Despicable Me DVD and Blu-ray | |
| Orientation Day | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| Banana | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2011 | Brad & Gary[10][11] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Brad | Short film |
| 2013 | Despicable Me 2[9] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Kevin the Minion, Bob the Minion, Stuart the Minion, Additional Minions, Evil Minions, The Minions | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production |
| 2015 | Minions[9] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Kevin the Minion, Bob the Minion, Stuart the Minion, The Minions | Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production |
| 2017 | Despicable Me 3[12] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Mel, The Minions and Museum Director | |
| 2022 | Minions: The Rise of Gru[13] | No | No | No | Yes | Kevin the Minion, Bob the Minion, Stuart the Minion, Otto the Minion, The Minions | |
| 2022 | Minions & More Volume 1[14] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Kevin the Minion, Bob the Minion, Stuart the Minion, The Minions | Debuted on Netflix |
| 2024 | Despicable Me 4 | No | No | Executive | Yes | The Minions |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004–2010 | Pat & Stan | Yes | Yes | No | Creator |
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