Editing Nick Park (section)

== Career ==
In 1985, Park joined the staff of [[Aardman Animations]] in [[Bristol]], where he worked as an animator on commercial products (including the dance scene involving oven-ready chickens for the music video for [[Peter Gabriel]]'s "[[Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel song)|Sledgehammer]]"). He also had a part in animating the Penny cartoons from the first season of ''[[Pee-wee's Playhouse]]'', which featured [[Paul Reubens]] as his character [[Pee-wee Herman]].

Along with all this, he had finally completed ''[[A Grand Day Out]]'', and with that in post-production, he made ''[[Creature Comforts]]'' as his contribution to a series of shorts called "Lip Synch". ''Creature Comforts'' matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes. The two films were nominated for a host of awards. ''A Grand Day Out'' beat ''Creature Comforts'' for the [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA Award]], but it was ''Creature Comforts'' that won Park his first [[Academy Awards|Oscar]].

In 1990, Park worked alongside advertising agency GGK to develop a series of highly acclaimed television advertisements for the "Heat Electric" campaign. The [[Creature Comforts#The advertisements|''Creature Comforts'' advertisements]] are now regarded as among the best advertisements ever shown on British television, as voted (independently) by viewers of the United Kingdom's main commercial channels [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]<ref>[http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.943 ITV’s Best Ever Adverts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305130459/http://thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.943 |date=5 March 2009 }}. Retrieved 7 August 2010.</ref> and [[Channel 4]].<ref>[http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/tv_ads/results.html 100 Greatest TV Ads]. Retrieved 7 August 2010.</ref>

Two more [[Wallace and Gromit]] shorts, ''[[The Wrong Trousers]]'' (1993) and ''[[A Close Shave]]'' (1995), followed, both winning Oscars. He then made his first feature-length film, ''[[Chicken Run]]'' (2000), co-directed with Aardman founder [[Peter Lord]]. He also supervised a new series of ''Creature Comforts'' films for British television in 2003.

[[File:Wallace, Gromit, and creator Nick Park.jpg|thumb|left|Park in 2005 promoting ''[[Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit]]'']]
His second theatrical feature-length film and first [[Wallace and Gromit]] feature, ''[[Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit]]'', was released on 5 October 2005, and won Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 78th Academy Awards, 6 March 2006.

On 10 October 2005, a fire gutted one of [[Aardman Animations]]' archive warehouses.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4326624.stm |work=BBC News | title = Animation archive up in smoke | date = 10 October 2005 | access-date =3 October 2007 }}</ref> The fire resulted in the loss of some of Park's creations, including the models and sets used in the movie ''[[Chicken Run]]''. Some of the original Wallace and Gromit models and sets, as well as the master prints of the finished films, were elsewhere and survived.

In 2007 and 2008, Park's work included a United States version of ''[[Creature Comforts]]'', a weekly television series that was on [[CBS]] every Monday evening at 8&nbsp;pm [[Eastern Time Zone|ET]]. In the series, Americans were interviewed about a range of subjects. The interviews were lip-synced to Aardman animal characters.

In September 2007, it was announced that Park had been commissioned to design a bronze statue of Wallace and Gromit, which will be placed in his home town of Preston.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6980995.stm |work=BBC News | title = Wallace and Gromit statue planned | date = 6 September 2007 | access-date =3 October 2007 }}</ref> In October 2007, it was announced that the [[BBC]] had commissioned another Wallace and Gromit short film to be entitled ''Trouble at Mill''<ref>{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7024834.stm |work=BBC News | title = Wallace and Gromit return to TV | date = 3 October 2007 | access-date =3 October 2007 }}</ref> (retitled later to ''[[A Matter of Loaf and Death]]'').

Park studied at Preston College,<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.aoc.co.uk/en/aoc_beacon_gold_and_other_awards/aoc_beacon_gold_awards/aoc_gold_awards/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-2005.cfm | work = [[Association of Colleges]] | title = Hall of fame 2005 | date = 10 October 2005 | access-date = 6 November 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120407002526/http://www.aoc.co.uk/en/aoc_beacon_gold_and_other_awards/aoc_beacon_gold_awards/aoc_gold_awards/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-2005.cfm | archive-date = 7 April 2012}}</ref> which has since named its library for the art and design department after him: the [https://web.archive.org/web/20111106115224/http://www.preston.ac.uk/index.php/library-learning-centres Nick Park Library Learning Centre]. He is the recipient of a gold [[Blue Peter badge|''Blue Peter'' badge]].<ref name=telegraph/>

By the beginning of 2010, Park had won four Academy Awards, and had the distinction of having won an Academy Award every time he had been nominated (his only loss being when he was nominated twice in the same category). This streak ended in the 2010 Oscars when ''A Matter of Loaf and Death'' failed to win the best animated short Academy Award.

Park had his first acting role in February 2011, voicing himself in a cameo on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Angry Dad: The Movie]]". In the episode, the fictional Park's new Willis and Crumble short, ''Better Gnomes and Gardens'', is a parody of ''Wallace and Gromit''.

In the end of 2011, Park directed a music video for "Plain Song"—a song by Native and the Name, a Sheffield band led by Joe Rose, the son of an old university friend. The video was filmed at Birkdale School, Sheffield, and Park also selected the track as one of his ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' when he went on the show in 2011, which led to suggestions that Park was using his fame to give a friend a leg up in his career. Park denied these claims, insisting it had become one of his favourite songs. The song and video can be found on YouTube.

In April 2013, Park was involved in the British stage adaptation of [[Hayao Miyazaki]]'s animated film, ''[[Princess Mononoke]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2013-04-19/nick-park-involvement-in-princess-mononoke-play-revealed|title=Nick Park's Involvement in Princess Mononoke Play Revealed|date=4 June 2023 }}</ref> He was the executive producer of ''[[Shaun the Sheep Movie]]'' and he also voiced himself in a cameo.

For 2018, he directed another Aardman Animations stop-motion film, titled ''[[Early Man (film)|Early Man]]'', which tells a story of a [[caveman]] who unites his tribe against the [[Bronze Age]] while unintentionally inventing [[Association football|football]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Jaafar|first1=Ali|title=Studiocanal Doubles Down on Family Fare: Reteams With Nick Park And Gilles De Maistre For New Pics – Cannes|url=https://deadline.com/2015/05/studiocanal-nick-park-aardman-paddington-david-heyman-harry-potter-1201421472/|magazine=Deadline|access-date=7 May 2015|date=6 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Jaafar|first1=Ali|title=Nick Park's 'Early Man' A Prehistoric Blockbuster For StudioCanal; First Look Poster – Cannes|url=https://deadline.com/2015/05/nick-parks-early-man-studiocanal-paddington-shaun-the-sheep-1201429738/|magazine=Deadline|access-date=5 June 2015|date=19 May 2015}}</ref>

On 21 May 2019, Park announced that a new Wallace and Gromit project was currently in the works, with no projected release date.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/nick-park-new-wallace-gromit-project-works-1212493|title = New 'Wallace & Gromit' Project in Works, Says Nick Park|website = [[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date = 21 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/05/new-wallace-gromit-project-nick-park.html|title=New Wallace & Gromit Project Announced by Creator Nick Park|date=21 May 2019}}</ref> In January 2022, Park announced that the project was currently in production as a [[television film]] for release in 2024 for the BBC and [[Netflix]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Wallace & Gromit are returning to the BBC for a brand new adventure|url=https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a38828514/wallace-and-gromit-new-film-bbc/|last=West|first=Amy|work=[[Digital Spy]]|publisher=[[Hearst Magazines UK]]|date=20 January 2022|access-date=21 January 2022}}</ref> The film, ''[[Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl]]'', was first shown on BBC One on Christmas Day 2024, and also featured the return of ''Wrong Trousers'' villain Feathers McGraw.