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Thomas Porter was born on October 9, 1968 in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA. He is a film director, best known for Monsters, Inc., a Pixar film.

Before joining Pixar, Tom created three non-computer animations, Next Door, Palm Springs, and Winter.

Early Schooling
Porter attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1973 where he graduated with a Math major. Upon graduation he enrolled in Stanford University where he received an MS in 1975.

Work Before Pixar
After Stanford University, Porter went to Washington, D.C., to become the computer graphics programmer in the molecular modeling laboratory of the National Institutes of Health. But government work was a far cry from Tom's real interest - special effects. He interviewed at special-effects shops in Los Angeles, but found the pace too hectic. He moved to the Bay Area to work at Ampex, a broadcast engineering firm, and in 1980 he sat across from CBS newsmen Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather while they analyzed vote counts state by state. The graphics machine Porter helped develop turned some states “red” and others “blue,” depending on which candidate had won.

The next year, between the releases of the second and third Star Wars films, George Lucas hired Porter to come to Lucasfilm. He followed Ed Catmull, whom Lucas had hired away from the New York Institute of Technology.

Involvement in Pixar
Porter has been at Pixar since its founding in 1986. He has been an integral part of some of the most seminal works of Pixar Studios, notably Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bugs Life and Monsters, Inc.. He contributed to these animated films as a co-author to the scripts, and worked alongside CGI stalwarts like John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft. He also voiced Mr. Incredible in the Mr. Incredible and Pals short cartoon released on the special features disc on the DVD of The Incredibles. All of these films received mass acclaim and top honors.

In 2004, he was asked by John Lasseter to direct the English translation of Howl's Moving Castle. Lasseter declined the project because he was busy helping to make the movie Cars.

Docter is currently directing Up, set for release May 29, 2009.

He is married to Christine Baron, with whom he has 3 boys, Spencer, Ross, and Chase.

Pixar filmography

 * WALL-E (2008) - Associate Producer
 * Cars (2002) - Associate Producer
 * Monsters, Inc. (2001) - Technical Direction
 * Toy Story (1995) - Shading Supervisor