Who Is Hayao Miyazaki?

By: Debbi Michiko Florence, Who HQ

Be inspired by the magical life of Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki, whose astounding filmography includes My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Howl's Moving Castle.

Hayao Miyazaki was born in 1941 in the Hongō district of Tokyo, Japan. By middle school, Hayao had decided that he wanted to be a manga artist. In his last year of high school, that changed when he watched a movie called The Tale of the White Serpent. It was Japan's first animated movie in color! Suddenly, Hayao knew that he wanted to make films, too. After university, Hayao got a job as an artist at Toei Doga, an animation studio. This would be the first stepping stone to a lifetime of creating beautiful films. Hayao went on to found his own animation studio, Studio Ghibli, and then created some of the world's most popular animated films. Now in his eighties, Hayao continues to inspire the world with magical stories and gorgeous animation in his incredible collection of movies, including his Oscar-winning films Spirited Away and The Boy and the Heron.