Growing up on a dairy farm in Denmark, Brian Leif Hansen assumed he’d spend his life living near where he grew up, perhaps a farmer himself, but the universe had other ideas for him. 

While a love for puppets and animation was always with him, that didn’t seem like a viable option for a career so he did the next best thing and trained to be a chef. While he didn’t realize it then, that early training prepared him for the life of an animator: building stamina, and cultivating an eye for precision and detail.

Leaving behind a successful career in the kitchen, at 24 Brian took a leap and enrolled in a program at the world-renowned Animation Workshop and the rest, as they say, is history.

In our conversation, Brian shares memories of growing up on a farm and takes us through his whirlwind, if short-lived, career in the culinary arts. He then shares his animation path and how he applied lessons learned throughout his career to tackle his biggest challenge: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

Links:

• Website
• IMDb
• LinkedIn