Today's birthday, April 1
Today's birthday, April 1: American cartoonist Andreas Deja (1957-)
Andreas Deja is famous for helping create some of Disney's most famous cartoon villains.
Deja was born on April 1, 1957 in Gdansk, Poland and after seeing Disney's The Jungle Book decided he wanted to work in animation.
He studied graphic design in Germany and began corresponding with Disney's animation department, who hired him in 1980.
When arriving at Disney, he first shared a cubicle with director Tim Burton, who had also been hired as a junior in the animation department.
The first film he worked on was The Black Cauldron (1985), which was panned by critics and has faded into the background of Disney's repertoire.
After years of mentoring from Disney's most accomplished cartoonists, Deja has gone on to become the go-to consultant for animating Mickey Mouse.
He has become known as a supervising animator on some of Disney's most memorable villains, saying he prefers to work on darker characters for their complexity.
Some of the characters for which he is responsible include Scar from The Lion King, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast and Jafar from Aladdin.
Deja is currently working on his own animated film Mushka, and is documenting the process in his blog.
In 2014, he announced that his book on Walt Disney's team of core animators, who he affectionately call his Nine Old Men, would be published.
The book is due for release in August 2015.
