From 'KPop Demon Hunters' to a Stick Figure YouTuber: THR's First Animation Powerlist

Studio heads, anime giants, stop-motion stalwarts and, of course, “Abi”—meet the people who are redefining the medium right now.

Determining animation has never been bigger or more difficult. In the past year alone, a K-pop-fueled Netflix phenomenon swept the Academy Awards, a Chinese sequel became the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and a character animator generated more than 34 million viewers without ever setting foot in a studio. Meanwhile, a family of Australian blue heels are teaching parents around the world how to raise their children. Animation's center of gravity isn't just shifting, it's increasing.

That's why The Hollywood Reporter is releasing its first Animation Power List, a snapshot of the most important and influential figures working in animation today, across film, television and online.

Of course, box office and ratings are important, and many names here have billions to prove it. But business success is only part of the equation. We also explored the more subjective and quantitative question of influence: who sets the aesthetic agenda, shapes business models, launches new talent, or simply makes the rest of the industry look over their shoulders? We tried to strike a balance, pairing A-list studio heads and executives who lead the biggest projects with character designers, animators, FX supervisors and art directors whose skills are often unknown.

This is a snapshot, not a definitive ranking or comprehensive census. In a business this big and global, someone has been unfairly left out. We lost to them: Sorry, we're big fans and there's always next year. Consider this a rough sketch.

Voiceover (Coyote vs. Acme, Teen Titans Go!)

Bauza has quietly become the voice of the entire cartoon world. A successor to the legendary Mel Blanc as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian and dozens of other iconic characters, the Canadian actor outdid himself with Coyote vs Acme, voicing everything from Bugs Bunny to Foghorn Leghorn and Tweety Bird. "A lot of talented people worked really hard to make this film, and to be able to celebrate it with so many people around the world has really been worth the wait," says Bauza.

Beckman has brought international independent animation to the American mainstream, from The Secret of Kells and The Breadwinner to the Studio Ghibli catalog. GKIDS has built an audience and an awards platform for non-Hollywood animation, creating a sustainable distribution model for ambitious features made outside of the major studios.

The heads of Sony Pictures Animation are having a moment. Belson oversaw the development and production of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony's first Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature, then conquered the world with KPop Demon Hunters after de Froberville joined as president in 2025. The duo say their proudest moment in 2026 is the commercial success of the sports comedy GOAT: "It's been great to see audiences embrace an original story with such a distinct point of view. It's been gratifying."

Director (The Incredibles, Iron Giant, Ray Gunn)

The bird does not make small films. The Oscar-winning director has spent decades proving that animation can carry the same emotional and visual weight. After stints at Pixar and Disney, Bird returned to original feature animation this year with Ray Gunn's sci-fi noir for Netflix, a 30-year passion project.

Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios

Bush has become a key creative force shaping the next phase of Disney animation. Under his leadership, the studio continues to develop established franchises while developing major new features, including the upcoming Hexed. His last effort behind the camera, Zootopia 2, which grossed $1.87 billion worldwide, wasn't too shabby either.

Italian-born author Casarosa first came to international attention with Pixar's lyrical short La Luna, a visual poem about family rituals set against a moonlit seascape. Casarosa's style, which brings the warmth, languidness and imperfections of hand-drawn animation to 3D animation, will be on full display in his upcoming film, the animated gangster comedy Gatto. This Pixar film will be released in the spring of 2027.

In 2025, KPop Demon Hunters not only became the biggest Netflix movie of all time, but also made Chu, Hong, and Yoo a true phenomenon as Rumi, Mira, and Zooey of the fictional K-pop girl group Huntrix, who voice them (with EJAE, Audrey Nona, and Ria Ami singing the Huntrix song). The combination of Cho's confidence and vulnerability, Hong's sarcastic confidence, and Yu's playful energy and comic timing make for a combination that couldn't have worked without all three.

Clark runs a studio that refuses to let go of clay. As CEO of Aardman Animations, he has maintained the British stop-motion house behind Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and The Running Chicken without losing the handmade charm that has drawn audiences back for decades (Aardman celebrates its 50th anniversary this year). What did Clarke like to make last year? "It has to be Toy Story 5," he says. "I was working at Disney when the first film came out, and I thought it was groundbreaking, both technically and in terms of storytelling."

The French director and co-creator of Despicable Me — made with the multilingual nonsense of Minions and still voicing all the little yellow men — has built one of the world's most successful animated franchises based on timing and character design alone. Coffin continues to develop new animation concepts, but minions remain his calling card. Banana!

Since taking the helm in 2019, Cohen has pushed DreamWorks toward more creative design and stylistic diversity, backing films like Wild Robot. He has argued for a studio without the single house style, and emphasized distinctive filmmaker-centric approaches to both original and established films.

Crawford and Mercado have been creative collaborators since meeting as storyboard artists on Kung Fu Panda 2, sharing a sensibility for broad comedy, kinetic action and character-driven storytelling in their work on The Croods: A New Age and the Oscar-nominated Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Forgotten Island, their first major feature as writer/directors, stylistically combines 3D CGI with expressive 2D changes inspired by 1990s anime.

President and Chief Creative Officer, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation

After a long hiatus from projects under wraps (The Day the Earth Exploded, Coyote vs. Acme), Damaschke leads the theatrical return of Warner Bros. Animation Pictures. At this year's Annecy, he unveiled the studio's new logo and a seven-film slate, starting with the highly anticipated The Cat in the Hat. "[This year] is a turning point for Warner Bros. Animation," says Damaschke. "After three and a half years of building this studio from the ground up, we can finally share what we've created with the world!"

A group of disabled voice actors, singers and voice artists was formed in 2025 through the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, which supports disability inclusion in the entertainment industry. This year they made history in Sony Pictures Animation's GOAT, becoming the first disability group to work on a major studio production. "Having such talented voice actors with disabilities was our proudest achievement," says Nowicki, who started (and is a member of) Disability Circle Group through a partnership with EDFC.

Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios

With three Academy Awards and a body of work that has redefined what emotional storytelling looks like in animation, Dr. Doctor needs no introduction. As Pixar's chief creative officer since 2018, he's overseen the studio's next wave, balancing new voices and IP — with the likes of Elio and Hoppers — with careful management of the studio's best-selling franchises.

Since taking over at Paramount Animation in January, amid the changes that have come with the studio's $8 billion merger with Skydance, Dodge has moved quickly to build his slate, drawing on his experience developing, producing and expanding global franchises in Paw Patrol, Spin Master, and Producer. He's followed up with a range of new titles, including Robert Rodriguez's Christmas original The Devil's List , Dan Trachtenberg's animated horror comedy Freddy the 13th , and Nithya Mehra's animated musical Dia with a Bollywood ensemble.

Edwards joined Skydance in 2019 after two decades at DreamWorks, working on such global juggernauts as Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon. Under his watch, Skydance's Swapped became one of Netflix's biggest animated hits, while Ray Gunn's Brad Bird, also released by Netflix, leads the awards conversation this season.

Groening changed what animation could be on American television, and The Simpsons still proves that. The longest-running scripted series in television history aired its 800th episode in February, introducing a new generation with Bart, Maggie, Lisa, Marge and Homer thanks to the Disney Plus library of all 37 completed seasons. (The new Simpsons movie is set for 2027.) What Groening did for the family sitcom, he repeated for sci-fi with Futurama, which is set to wrap up its revived Hulu run next year with three feature-length fantasy specials with Disenchantment on Netflix. The living animation legend says he's not worried about a future dominated by artificial intelligence. "As an example, I welcome our new AI masters," Groening says. "I want to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be useful in rallying others to try their underground data caves."

From Guillermo del Toro's The Book of Life to Netflix's Maya and the Three, Gutierrez has spent his career putting Mexican folklore at the core of his animated films. Now he's bringing that sensibility to Speedy Gonzales, the Warner Bros. Pictures animated feature he's developing, reimagining the classic Looney Tunes character for a more cultured, modern audience.

Han's fingerprints are on some of the most iconic characters in Disney history—Ariel, Belle, Aladdin, Mulan—and he's been a key figure in bridging the studio's 2D past with its CGI present, breaking the Internet as a consultant on projects from Frozen to Big Hero 6.

Animation director (Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Boy and the Heron)

Honda is an animator's animator, equally adept at crafting epic action sequences — see his work on the Neon Genesis Evangelion series — and delicate, emotional scenes with subtle human faces, a trait the great Hayao Miyazaki brought on when he brought Honda on board as animation director on his 2024 Oscars and Heronony.

Creator (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill)

Judge has been animation's most accurate cultural barometer since Beavis and Butt-Head debuted on MTV in the early '90s. But his animated legacy arguably rests on King of the Hill , the Texas family comedy reboot last year that somehow manages to bridge the political divide while being heartfelt and deeply funny.

Kang and Applehans cemented their presence as animated leads with the 2025 KPop phenomenon Demon Hunters, which combined American 3D CGI with elements of Korean anime and aeni to become a two-time Oscar winner and the most-watched Netflix film of all time.

Kim worked on the visual development of Elsa in Frozen and oversaw character design in Big Hero 6. His work on Wreck-It Ralph and Moana, Zootopia, Encanto, Strange World and more helped define Disney's contemporary approach to characters. As the first Korean animator to work at Disney, his work also marked an important opening for Korean artists at the studio.

Knight pushed stop-motion into spectacular new territory through 3D-printed facial animation and masterful action, earning Oscar nominations for producing The Boxtrolls and directing Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link. His new feature, Wildwood, promises to take stop-motion places it's never been before.

Kondo has overseen Ufotable's transformation into one of the world's most recognizable names in anime. The 2020 release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Mugen Train was the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, grossing over $500 million worldwide, a feat that 2025's Infinity Castle grossed over $790 million confirmed anime's presence in the global mainstream.

Leo hasn't changed much since his 1999 animation at the Kilkenny-based studio created by Tom Moore, Nora Twomey and Paul Young. The outfit behind Oscar nominees The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers still hand-crafts stories steeped in folklore and folklore. Leo is expanding its global reach and has signed co-production deals with companies such as Netflix and Apple TV.

Producers and Directors (The Lego Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)

Lord and Miller have helped rewrite the rules of mainstream CG animation, with a knowledge of pop culture and an anarchic approach to visual storytelling, from Cloud with Chance Meatballs and The Lego Movie to the groundbreaking and Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The animation production lines and comic book aesthetic are beyond imagination.

Macari's visual effects work has powered some of the decade's most notable animated films, from the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel to KPop's Demon Hunters. His command of particle simulation, lighting and compositing transforms the director's ambitious visions into fully realized worlds.