Karey Kirkpatrick

Karey Kirkpatrick is an American screenwriter, film director, producer, and Broadway book writer, born on December 14, 1964, in Monroe, Louisiana. He studied at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, earning his degree in 1988, and subsequently joined Walt Disney Feature Animation as a staff writer, a position he held for more than three years. His first screenwriting credit emerged from that period as a co-writer on The Rescuers Down Under.

After departing Disney to work as a freelance screenwriter, Kirkpatrick accumulated a range of early credits that included Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, James and the Giant Peach, and The Little Vampire. In 1997, he wrote the screenplay for Aardman's Chicken Run, based on a story by Peter Lord and Nick Park. He also adapted The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment, and co-wrote the live-action adaptation of E. B. White's Charlotte's Web for Paramount Pictures, Walden Media, and Nickelodeon Movies.

Kirkpatrick developed a sustained working relationship with DreamWorks Animation, contributing as a writer or story consultant on The Road to El Dorado and Madagascar. In May 2006, he co-wrote and co-directed Over the Hedge alongside Tim Johnson, marking his feature directorial debut. That same year he also produced and co-wrote, with Chris Poche, the comedy Flakes, and later directed the Eddie Murphy dramedy Imagine That for Paramount Pictures.

In 2012 and 2013, Kirkpatrick wrote the English-language screenplays for the American releases of two Studio Ghibli productions, The Secret World of Arrietty and From Up on Poppy Hill, respectively. He also contributed to the screenplay for Sony Pictures Animation's The Smurfs 2 in 2013. In 2018, he wrote and directed Smallfoot, an animated musical comedy produced by Warner Animation Group and animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks; he and his brother Wayne co-wrote the film's six original songs. That same year, Kirkpatrick and his Chicken Run collaborator John O'Farrell were hired to script Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, which was released on Netflix in 2023. He additionally co-wrote the song "Such a Beautiful Day" for Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, earning an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Original Song for a Preschool, Children's, or Animated Program.

On Broadway, Kirkpatrick collaborated with his older brother, songwriter and musician Wayne Kirkpatrick, on the musical Something Rotten!, which began development in 2011. The show opened in 2015 and earned Kirkpatrick two Tony Award nominations: one for Best Book of a Musical, shared with co-writer John O'Farrell, and one for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre. The production also received a Grammy nomination for Best Original Cast Recording. Kirkpatrick and Wayne subsequently co-wrote the book for Mrs. Doubtfire, which opened on Broadway in 2020. Together, the two musicals represent Kirkpatrick's full Broadway writing credits to date.