Draft:Morgan Galen King

Morgan Galen King is an American film director, writer, and animator. He is best known for writing, directing, and animating the rotoscoped fantasy film The Spine of Night along with his collaborator, Philip Gelatt.

Life and career
King grew up in Radford, Virginia, where he began his interest in the arts by drawing gory comic books. After working in graphic design for a decade, and founding Yer Bird Records, he wrote, directed, and produced two short rotoscoped films, Mongrel & The Wrath of the Ape King and Exordium.   They caught the eye of Gelatt, who approached him with the idea that the two could partner to expand King's vision into a feature length film. After shooting the live-action footage for the film in 2013, King spent seven years hand-animating the film, almost losing the entire project right before its premiere at South by Southwest when his Microsoft Windows system auto-updated while he was sleeping. After its premiere, The Spine of Night's distribution rights were purchased by RLJE Films and Shudder. . The film qualified for the 94th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, and King relied on that qualification as an example to assist in the campaign to have another rotoscope animated film, Richard Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2, deemed eligible for the same award the following year.

Filmography
Film