Tony Bancroft was accepted into the exclusive, Disney-sponsored art college, California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts) in 1987, where he thrived artistically and developed a lifelong passion for animation. Soon after, he realized one of his childhood dreams as he was hired to animate for Walt Disney Animation Studios. During his 12-year career with Disney Studios, Bancroft helped create and animate Pumbaa, the lovable warthog in The Lion King; 
Kronk, the dim-witted sidekick in The Emperor’s New Groove; Cogsworth the nervous clock from Beauty and the Beast; and
 Iago the pestering parrot in Aladdin. Bancroft’s most notable accomplishments include being the co-director of Walt Disney’s feature film, Mulan, for which he received the Annie Award for Director of the Year from ASIFA-International; and animation supervisor of Sony’s Stuart Little 2, for which he received the Visual Effects Society’s top award for character animation. Recently, Bancroft finished executive producing another CG feature called Mosley, released in 2019 and co-directing an independent CG animated feature Animal Crackers releasing this year on Netflix. Bancroft still loves to animate! He animated some of the 2D animated scenes in Mary Poppins Returns, Green Eggs and Ham for Netflix and is currently animating on Warner Brother’s Space Jam 2. He and his twin brother, Tom, have a popular podcast focusing on the animation industry called The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast, which is the #1 podcast for animation on iTunes. Tony is thrilled for the opportunity to bring his experience and passion for animation and use them to instruct the next generation of animation creators as Program Director of Azusa Pacific University’s new degree program in Animation and Visual Effects.