Kirk DeMicco

Academy Award® nominee Kirk DeMicco is the director of the 2023 feature film release of DreamWorks Animation’s Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken (June 30, 2023).   The film dives into the turbulent waters of high school and tells the story of a shy teenager (Ruby Gillman) who discovers that she’s part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and that her destiny, in the depths of the oceans, is bigger than she ever dreamed.   The heartfelt action-comedy stars Lana Condor in the titular role, along with Annie Murphy, Toni Collette, and Jane Fonda.  

Most recently, DeMicco directed and co-wrote the animated musical adventure Vivo for Sony Pictures Animation, in collaboration with Tony award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda.   Nearly ten years in the making, Miranda wrote all the original songs for the film.   

DeMicco wrote and directed the Academy Award® and Golden Globe nominated film The Croods along with Chris Sanders for DreamWorks Animation. 

Additional credits include Space Chimps for Twentieth Century Fox Sherlock Homeboy, Hong Kong Phooey and Casper: Scare School.  Live Action credits include Racing Stripes and the documentary Halo: Freefall Warriors (executive producer) for the Discovery Channel.

Other writing credits include New Gods, Roald Dahl’s children classic The Twits, as well as numerous projects for Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes.  DeMicco also collaborated with John Cleese on several projects (including The Croods) as well as with Barry Sonnenfeld to pen Coyotes in the House.

DeMicco attended the University of Southern California and spent his junior year studying aboard at the Canterbury campus of the University of Kent.  He received a Bachelor of Arts from USC, double majoring in political science and economics.  

After graduating from USC, DeMicco (who is fluent in Italian), spent nearly three years in Rome as a reporter for Foreign Sales, an Italian publication focusing on the film industry.     

Upon his return to the US, he landed an entry level job at the William Morris Agency in New York and made his way to the Los Angeles desk of Lee Stollman where he was promoted to Stollman’s assistant.  His passion for writing led him to develop his first screenplay A Day in November, which he sold to Warner Bros., and a subsequent deal to pen Quest for Camelot soon followed. 

DeMicco is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and is represented by CAA.