Chris Meledandri

Chris Meledandri (born 1959) is an American film producer and the founder and CEO of Illumination, one of the most commercially successful animation studios in the world. Its franchises — Despicable Me and its Minions, The Secret Life of Pets, Sing, and the record-breaking Super Mario Bros. Movie — have grossed billions. He also sits on Nintendo’s board.

Empowered, not replaced — but jobs first

Meledandri has spoken about AI as the latest chapter in a career built on technological change, recalling how earlier tools felt like they were “empowering us, not threatening to replace us.” He has urged animators to engage with new technology rather than reject it out of hand.

Yet his position is markedly more protective than that framing alone suggests. In 2026 he told the Associated Press that his “main focus right now is the preservation of jobs,” even at the cost of being the most technologically advanced studio, and that Illumination is deliberately “not pushing AI into our pipeline.” He rejected the industry’s stock reassurance that past technological shocks worked out fine: “None of those other technologies had agency,” he warned.

That combination — openness to the tool, hard limits on its use, and an explicit priority on protecting artists’ livelihoods — places him among the more cautious pro-AI executives in animation.