Klay Hall Film Roman Supervising Director, King of the Hill

• I realized I wanted to be in animation when I saw:
…Pinocchio at a drive-in with my mom and dad. Wow, that blew me away. It inspired me to draw all along in school. I was also particularly encouraged by an art teacher Dick Cottrell who gave me confidence; the kind of confidence you get when someone just says, "You know you can do it."

• When I was a kid I:
…was infatuated with classical Disney. My friends and I drew our own flipbooks; bouncing ball sort of things that morphed into men.

• My parents wanted me to be:
It wasn't like they wanted me to be a doctor or anything. They encouraged me to follow my dreams and were behind whatever I loved.

Klay working on an upcoming one-hour special. That's a Pirates of the Caribbean poster above his desk...

• My first job (of any kind) was:
…a gas station attendant at a Canoga Park Texaco station. I was 14-years-old and that’s when they still had full service. I washed windows; I even vacuumed cars.

• My first big break in animation was:
…working as an assistant at a commercial studio in Hollywood called Film Fair. I worked on the Raid commercials for Frank Terry, Cheryl Abood, Sam Cornell, Becky Bristow and Chris Buck. When I got there, they put me in a room with Art Babbitt. I was just this kid sitting with Art Babbitt. It was amazing. He told such great stories about working at Disney and reminiscing about the Golden Years. He was a funny guy and a great storyteller.

• My career in animation is most influenced by:
…Brad Bird, when I worked on Family Dog, Chris Buck and Darrell Van Citters. They taught me to take my time and do it right in spite of everything. Brad would always say, "Your mistake will live forever. If you get it done right, you won’t ever have to think twice about it." In primetime, of course, that’s a pretty difficult thing to do. But, if you’re really prepped upfront, you catch most of your mistakes, especially when you’ve got a team effort going. We have 135 people on King of the Hill and I have nine directors under me who each have six to eight member teams below them. And, all those people are trying to do the best jobs possible.

• I'm most proud of:
…my two sons Luke and Jack and my wife Debra.

• One thing I would change about the animation business is:
…more time.

• The animated character I'm most like is:
…Peter Pan, the guy who never grew up…I’m still a kid in so many ways.

• What I'd like to be doing in 10 years:
…directing and producing successful animation and fly-fishing in the Tetons.