Jessup in 1983

Born in Corvallis, OR; grew up in California's San Joaquin Valley and the Bay Area; educated at Oregon State University (BFA, graphic design) and Stanford University (MFA, design). Jessup began his career at Korty Films, designing "The Adventures of Thelma Thumb" for "Sesame Street". Afterwards, he went on to Lucasfilm to work as art director on several live action projects before joining Industrial light & Magic in 1986. His credits there include visual effects art director for INNERSPACE (1987), GHOSTBUSTERS II (1989), THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO (both 1990), HOOK (1992). He worked in the art department for RETURN TO OZ (1985, storyboard artist), HOWARD THE DUCK (1986, prod. designer ass't) and FIRE IN THE SKY (1993, art director: alien sequence). In 1994, Jessup left ILM to serve as production designer for Disney's animated feature JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1996). Since 1996, he has been a production designer at Pixar, where he worked on the animated features A BUG'S LIFE (1998), MONSTERS, INC. (2001) and RATATOUILLE (2007). Early in his career, he was art director for TWICE UPON A TIME (1983) and "The Ewok Adventure" (1984, TV). Besides his work in film design, Jessup has written and illustrated three children's books, What's Alice Up To? (1997) and Grandma Summer (2000), both published by Viking Children's Books, and Welcome to Monstropolis (2001) based on MONSTERS, INC. For Viking, he also illustrated the books, Just Enough (1999) and Flower Girl (2002). He currently lives in Marin County, California, with his wife and three children.  Best Achievement in Visual Effects 1987: INNERSPACE (w. Dennis Muren, William George & Kenneth F. Smith)  Nominated for Achievement in Visual Effects 1991: HOOK (w. Eric Brevig, Mark Sullivan & Michael Lantieri) 2 nominations, 1 Award