Pierre Coffin

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 the first four installments 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.

Pierre Coffin
Coffin in 2017
Born	Pierre-Louis Padang Coffin (1967-03-16) 16 March 1967 (age 57) France
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
Signature

Life and career

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 (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013), with Renaud, Despicable Me 3 (2017)^[6] and the Despicable Me spin-off, Minions (2015) with Kyle Balda.^[7] Coffin provides the voice of the Minions in each installment of the Despicable Me and Minions franchise including the following films, Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)^[8] and Despicable Me 4 (2024).^[9] Coffin is returning to direct Minions 3, set for release in 2026.^[9] 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.^[10]

Coffin is currently developing two webseries for Illumination that will debut on TikTok and later on YouTube, titled Who's Who and Bones Story.^[11]

Personal life

Coffin has two children.^[3]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Inbetween Artist	Other	Voice Role
1993	We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story	No	Yes	No
2010	Despicable Me	Yes	No	Yes	The Minions
2013	Despicable Me 2	Yes	No	Yes	The Minions
2015	Minions	Yes	No	Yes	The Minions
2017	Despicable Me 3	Yes	No	Yes	The Minions and Museum Director
2022	Minions: The Rise of Gru	No	No	Yes	The Minions
2024	Despicable Me 4	No	No	Yes	The Minions
2026	Minions 3[9]	Yes	No	Yes	The Minions

Short films

Year	Title	Director	Other	Voice Role
2003	Gary's Day	Yes	No
2011	Brad & Gary[12][13]	Yes	Yes	Brad

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Creator
2004–2010	Pat & Stan	Yes	Yes	Yes

Accolades

Films

Year	Title	Notes
2013	Despicable Me 2[14]	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production
2015	Minions[14]	Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production

References

1. "Pierre Coffin". Premiere. 15 March 1967. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
2. Hodgkins, Crystalyn (13 March 2016). "Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Inori Minase Win 10th Annual Seiyū Awards". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on 5 May 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
3. McGrath, Nick (26 June 2015). "Pierre Coffin: Me and my Minions". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
4. Universal Pictures. "Despicable Me 2 Production Notes" (PDF). Despicable Me. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
5. Marighetti, Debora (30 September 2007). "Happy Hippo, divertimento e tenerezza formato spot". TVBlog.it (in Italian). Retrieved 4 July 2016.
6. Donnelly, Matt (13 April 2016). "Trey Parker Joins Voice Cast of 'Despicable Me 3'". The Wrap. Archived from the original on 16 June 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
7. Fleming, Mike (24 July 2012). "Illumination And Universal Hatch 'Despicable Me' Spinoff About The Minions". Deadline. Archived from the original on 25 July 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
8. McMillan, Graeme (2 February 2020). "'Minions: The Rise of Gru' Brings Mischief to the Super Bowl". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
9. Jackson, Angelique (11 July 2024). "Minions 3 Set for 2027 as Despicable Me Franchise Nears $5 Billion at Box Office". Variety. Retrieved 19 October 2024.
10. Spielberger, Daniel (29 June 2017). "This Is Why The Minions Are So Popular". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
11. Lang, Brent; Shanfeld, Ethan (4 April 2023). "'Sherk 5' With Original Cast, Donkey Spinoff With Eddie Murphy and More Teased by Illumination's Chris Meledandri". Variety. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
12. "Brad & Gary (2011) Review". Designing Geek. 18 April 2012. Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
13. "Brad & Gary". Seattle International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
14. "Pierre Coffin". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.

External links

• Pierre Coffin at IMDb