Pierre-Louis Padang Coffin born 15 March 1967 is a French voice actor, animator and film director best known for co-directing all four films in the Despicable Me franchise and as the voice of the Minions, which won him the Kids Family Award at the 10th Seiyu Awards.
Life and career
Coffin was born in France to Yves Coffin, a French diplomat, and Nh. Dini, an Indonesian novelist. He was trained at the Gobelins animation school in Paris and started to work at Amblin, the 2D London-based facility, where he worked on the Steven Spielberg-executive-produced We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story. He then started as a freelance animator in the French CGI studio Ex Machina where he worked as an animator and eventually animation supervisor. Pierre Coffin’s directorial career began with a short named Pings in 1997. He then started to collaborate by doing commercials with Passion Pictures Paris and Mac Guff. He created the characters Pat & Stan for the titular TF1 TV series. In 2010 he completed, with Chris Renaud, the feature CGI animated movie Despicable Me for Universal.
Coffin directed Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013), with Renaud, Despicable Me 3 (2017) and the Despicable Me spin-off, Minions (2015) with Kyle Balda.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Voice role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story | No | No | No | No | Inbetween Artist | |
| 2003 | Gary’s Day | Yes | No | No | Short film | ||
| 2010 | Despicable Me | Yes | No | No | Yes | Tim the Minion, Bob the Minion, Mark the Minion, Phil the Minion, Stuart the Minion | |
| 2010 | Home Makeover | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Short film included on Despicable Me DVD and Blu-ray | |
| 2010 | Orientation Day | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Short film included on Despicable Me DVD and Blu-ray | |
| 2010 | Banana | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Short film included on Despicable Me DVD and Blu-ray | |
| 2011 | Brad & Gary | Yes | No | No | Yes | Brad | Short film |
| 2013 | Despicable Me 2 | Yes | No | No | Yes | Kevin the Minion, Bob the Minion, Stuart the Minion, Additional Minions, Evil Minions | Nominated – Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominated – Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production |
| 2015 | Minions | Yes | No | No | Yes | Kevin the Minion, Bob the Minion, Stuart the Minion, The Minions | Nominated – Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production |
| 2017 | Despicable Me 3 | Yes | No | No | Yes | Mel, The Minions and Museum Director | |
| 2021 | Minions: The Rise of Gru | No | No | No | Yes | The Minions |
Television
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-2010 | Pat & Stan | Yes | No | No | Creator |