Christopher H Meledandri

Chris Meledandri is founder and CEO of Illumination, responsible for its successful Despicable Me, Ice Age, and animated Dr. Seuss franchises. He also oversees Illumination’s franchises beyond the theater, broadening its reach into mobile games, consumer products, and social/digital media. Previously, Meledandri was a senior executive at 20th Century Fox, where he created the Ice Age franchise and shepherded The Simpsons Movie and the Dr. Seuss library (Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who). Christopher Meledandri was born May 15, 1959 in New York City. He attended Dartmouth College and is a member of the board of trustees at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He was married to Leslie Benziger, his longtime girlfriend and the mother of his two sons, from 2002 until their divorce in 2016.