Jared Bush
Biography
Jared Bush (born June 12, 1974) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director who has served as the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios since 2024. He is best known for co-writing and co-directing the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Zootopia (2016) and its upcoming sequel Zootopia 2 (2025), writing the film Moana (2016), its sequel Moana 2 (2024), and the 2026 upcoming live-action remake, and writing, directing, and winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for the film Encanto (2021), besides co-creating and executive producing the Disney XD animated series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero.
Bush was originally hired by Walt Disney Animation Studios on a "provisional eight-week contract." He joined the Zootopia project early on, before it evolved from a spy film into a police procedural; he was excited to work on a spy film because both his father and grandfather had worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. Several months after joining Disney, he had to personally pitch Zootopia to Disney chief executive officer Bob Iger. He went on to write the screenplays for the films Moana and its sequel, Moana 2.
Bush co-created the animated television series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero. In 2021, Bush directed Encanto about a Colombian magical family alongside Byron Howard with Charise Castro Smith as co-director. Bush also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Castro Smith.
On September 19, 2024, Disney Animation announced that chief creative officer Jennifer Lee was stepping down from that position to direct and write Frozen 3 and to write and executive produce Frozen 4. Bush was named as her successor.
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