30 Cool Facts About Chris McKay You Might Have Missed Before

Chris McKay, also known as Chris Taylor, is world renowned for his directorial debut “The Lego Batman Movie.” He first made his name for directing and editing three seasons of “Robot Chicken” and two seasons of “Moral Orel.” Here are some really interesting facts about the film director that you probably didn’t know before:

Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
1.  McKay is said to be currently developing and directing the movie “Nightwing,” as a part of the DC Extended Universe.
2.  He was hired by Warner Bros., to join directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on the live-action animated “The Lego Movie” to co-direct the film's animation.
3.  During the production of the movie, Lord and Miller were reportedly working on “22 Jump Street,” due to which McKay had to supervise all animation, editing, effects, lighting and rendering, in Australia.
4.  With the success of the movie, Warner Bros. decided to have McKay direct the sequel, which will be produced by Lord and Miller. However, the sequel was pushed back, and later cancelled.
5.  He was roped in to direct the spin off movie “The Lego Batman Movie,” the screenplay of which was co-written by Seth Grahame-Smith.
6.  Christopher McKay was born on November 11, 1973, in Winter Park, Florida. He spent most of his childhood days in Chicago, Illinois.
7.  Since his childhood days, he has been most interested in the filming career, and decided to take up the field in a very young age, inspired by Alfred Hitchcock movies.
8.  His very first work was shot at a young age on his parents’ Super 8 film camera, which was followed by several other short works.
9.  He attended Southern Illinois University for two years as a film student, and completed his degree at Columbia College Chicago.
10.  During his time in Chicago, he attended his first film shoot-for the 1989 comedy “Uncle Buck,” directed by John Hughes.


Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

11.  In the initial days of his career, he worked at several video and equipment rental companies, following which he purchased his own production equipment.
12.  With his new equipments, he worked for three years shooting and editing music videos, industrial videos and local films.
13.  He landed an editing job at a production company later. It was there that he completed his first movie “2wks, 1 yr.”
14.  He left the company after a period of time, and started his career as an editor. He first edited a film of his friend, titled “Kwik Stop.”
15.  Chris moved to Los Angeles in the year 2004, where he landed an editing job at the animation studio ShadowMachine.
16.  It was there that he started to work on the first episode of “Robot Chicken,” a stop motion adult animated sketch comedy TV series.
17.  He created and voiced the series’ first end title sequence of the TV series “Robot Chicken,” which was created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.
18.  He started to work on animated series “Moral Orel” for Adult Swim, in the year 2006. Creator Dino Stamatopoulos claimed that Chris’s work on the series “"really deserve[d] a producer credit" on the series.
19.  To this, McKay stated in a reply in that he is more interested in directing. Thus, in the second series, Dino allowed him to direct more than half episodes out of twenty episodes and also from the third season.
20.  It was his work on “Moral Orel” that impressed Matt and Seth, who offered him to direct “Robot Chicken” in the year 2007.


Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

21.  Following this, he directed the third, fourth, and the fifth seasons of the “Robot Chicken” series, which aired on Adult Swim.
22.  He also worked as editor and visual effect artist on the special episode “Robot Chicken: Star Wars” with Seth, which aired on June 17, 2007.
23.  Chris also worked on the “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” as co-producer and animation editor, in the year 2008.
24.  In the year 2010, he directed and co-produced the final installment of the special episodes, “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III.”
25.  McKay co-produced and directed the complete first season of the animated sci-fi adventure series “Titan Maximum” on Cartoon Network in 2009.
26.  In February 2015, Warner Bros, announced the theatrical “Adventure Time” animated film adaptation, to be produced by Roy Lee and Chris. He signed a first-look deal for being a producer with Warner Bros in March 2015.
27.  He, along with Jon and Josh Silberman, was set to produce the live-action/animation film “Coyote vs. Acme,” based on Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote.
28.  While director Dave Green was set the direct the movie, it was announced that he departed from the project in December 2020.
29.  In November 2018, it was announced that McKay has been roped in to direct an adaptation of “Jonny Quest,” for Warner Bros, with plans to make it their next big franchise.
30.  He replaced Dexter Fletcher as director of the movie “Renfield” from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley from a pitch by Robert Kirkman, in the year 2021.
31.  Chris McKay Net Worth: $19 Million