ROGER ALLERS

(29 June 1949 – 17 January 2026)

Photo courtesy of the Allers family.

Academy Award-nominated director Roger Allers passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 76. The animator, storyteller and director helped shape Disney’s modern renaissance and co-directed the 1994 masterpiece The Lion King.

Born June 29, 1949, in Rye, New York, and raised in Arizona, Allers discovered animation at age five after seeing Disney’s Peter Pan. A Disneyland do-it-yourself animation kit helped him decide that he would one day become a Disney artist. He earned a fine arts degree from Arizona State University, later refining his creative outlook through travel and study abroad. His early professional years were spent at Lisberger Studios, where he worked on children’s series such as Sesame Street and contributed story work to Tron, one of cinema’s earliest experiments in blending live-action with computer animation.

Allers’ career unfolded with periods in Toronto on Rock & Rule and in Tokyo helping guide the ambitious Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. He joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1985 as a storyboard artist on Oliver & Company, beginning a pivotal chapter that coincided with the studio’s resurgence. He went on to contribute story work to The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, and Aladdin, before serving as head of story on Beauty and the Beast. His defining achievement came in 1994, when he co-directed The Lion King with Rob Minkoff. The film became the highest-grossing traditionally animated feature of all time, celebrated for its emotional depth and musical ambition. The Disney icon later co-wrote the book for the Broadway adaptation with Irene Mecchi, helping transform the film into one of the most successful stage musicals in theatre history.

After leaving Disney, Allers continued directing and developing animated features, co-directing Sony Pictures Animation’s Open Season and overseeing the adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. He also directed the Oscar-nominated Hans Christian Andersen short The Little Matchgirl. Allers made appearances in two of the best documentaries about the Disney Renaissance, Waking Sleeping Beauty and Howard. Throughout his career, he championed hand-drawn animation and sincere, character-driven storytelling.

CHAD KENNERK