Nationality British Role Animator Name Alexander Williams | Notable work Queens Counsel Known for Animation, Cartoons Parents Richard Williams | |
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Born 18 October 1967 (age 57) ( 1967-10-18 ) London Website Alex Williams AnimationQueen's Counsel CartoonsAnimation Apprentice Movies The Glass Box, Charlie & Yip Siblings Claire Williams, Timothy Williams, Leif Williams, Natasha Williams, Holly Williams-Brock Similar People Richard Williams, Lizzie Waterworth, Tim Lebbon, Ken Ralston | ||
Alexander "Alex" Williams (born 18 October 1967 in London) is an English film animator and cartoonist. He is the son of animator Richard Williams. He has worked on many animated films, and is the author of the Queens Counsel cartoon strip in The Times.
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Early life
Williams was born in London in 1967. He is the son of Canadian animator Richard Williams. He played the voice of Tiny Tim in his father's 1971 television adaptation of A Christmas Carol. He was educated at Westminster School, Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, and Merton College, Oxford.
Cartoons
Williams and Graham Francis Defries are co-creators of the comic strip Queens Counsel. It is a satire on law and lawyers, which has appeared in the law pages of The Times newspaper since 1993. It is written under the pseudonyms Steuart and Francis. The strip was begun when Williams and Defries were working as research assistants for members of parliament at the House of Commons.
A number of collections of the cartoons have been published, by Robson Books and Harper Collins.
Other cartoon strip work includes Writer's Block, published in the books section of The Times from 2005–6, and The Dealers, published in The Tatler from 1994–95. He also illustrated the characters for the Baby Barista blog by fellow ex-barrister Tim Kevan.
Animation
Williams was a barrister at 12 King's Bench Walk Chambers in London before leaving in 1996 to pursue a full-time career in film animation, joining Warner Bros Feature Animation, where he was lead animator on the villain "Ruber", voiced by Gary Oldman, in Quest for Camelot. Williams gave the character a "nervous twitch", a "wrestler's strut" and "big hands with broken nails that look creepy on close-ups".
His work as an animator includes Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Princess and the Cobbler (1993), The Lion King (1994), Quest for Camelot (1998), The Iron Giant (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), Piglet's Big Movie, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), Robots (2005) and Open Season (2006).
Williams has also worked on visual effects in Racing Stripes (2005), Monster House (2006), Underdog (2007), Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Inkheart (2008), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Marmaduke (2010) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
He has contributed designs to Deckchair Dreams, a fundraising event organised by the Royal Parks Foundation in support of the London Royal Parks. In 2012 he contributed a design for The Big Egg Hunt, a charity fundraiser billed as the world's largest ever Easter egg hunt.
Teaching
He lives in London and teaches at various academies and studios including Escape Studios, however now tutors animation at Bucks New University in High Wycombe as a senior lecturer.
Williams has also founded the worlds first online based MA in animation at Buckinghamshire New University, beginning in September 2015.
In 2012 he founded an online animation school, Animation Apprentice.