---
name: "Karey Kirkpatrick"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/karey-kirkpatrick"
fi1m_id: "karey-kirkpatrick"
imdb_id: "nm0456732"
tmdb_id: 52845
wikidata_id: "Q1626388"
roles: ["Writer","Director"]
born: "14 December 1964"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 74
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-10-05T04:10:51.868526+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Karey Kirkpatrick

## Identity

Karey Kirkpatrick

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/karey-kirkpatrick
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** karey-kirkpatrick
- **IMDb ID:** nm0456732
- **TMDB ID:** 52845
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1626388
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karey_Kirkpatrick, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1626388, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0456732/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/52845

Writer and director. Born 14 December 1964 in Monroe, Louisiana, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Director
- **Born:** 14 December 1964, Monroe, Louisiana, USA
- **Active:** 2000–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 3: 1 directing, 2 writing
- **Frequently works with:** [Imelda Staunton](https://film.one/person/imelda-staunton.md), [Lynn Ferguson](https://film.one/person/lynn-ferguson.md), [Mark Burton](https://film.one/person/mark-burton.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 74, as writer, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 78 (2), 2020s 64 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karey_Kirkpatrick, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1626388, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0456732/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/52845

## Coming up

- *Over The Hedge 2* (2027-03-26), Writer

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Over the Hedge*](https://film.one/film/over-the-hedge.md) (73)
- **Netflix:** [*Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget*](https://film.one/film/chicken-run-dawn-of-the-nugget.md) (64)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Karey Kirkpatrick

> Karey Kirkpatrick gives animated animals practical problems and lets the comedy grow from their efforts to solve them. We rate him most when that seriousness survives the jokes, and least when the familiar family lesson takes over.

The chickens in *Chicken Run* (2000) take getting out of their Yorkshire coop seriously, and Kirkpatrick’s screenplay lets them. The prisoner-of-war escape structure supplies the obstacles, but Ginger’s determination makes the story work without any knowledge of the films being borrowed. Directors Peter Lord and Nick Park give the birds concerns of their own, rather than treating them as vehicles for references. Some of the escape-film jokes stretch thin, but this is the Kirkpatrick script we recommend most warmly.

Literary adaptations have occupied much of his writing career, from *James and the Giant Peach* (1996) through *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy* (2005) to *Charlotte’s Web* (2006). His move into directing came with *Over the Hedge* (2006), alongside Tim Johnson. Here, the suburban animals provide a way of looking at human consumption without delivering a lecture.

We laughed at the early consumption montage because the animals made our own appetites look foolish. Kirkpatrick shares the screenplay with David Hoselton, Lorne Cameron and Len Blum, so its successes and shortcomings cannot sensibly be assigned to one desk. There is enough wit and animal slapstick to keep the film enjoyable, even when the plot becomes predictable. But the reminders about family are less persuasive than the jokes about human excess.

*Smallfoot* (2018) brought directing, screenwriting and songs written with Wayne Kirkpatrick; the return to Aardman came with *Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget* (2023). Directed by Sam Fell, with a screenplay by Kirkpatrick, Rachel Tunnard and John O’Farrell, the sequel reverses the escape plot into a break-in. It is tidy, decent family entertainment, but rarely as odd or as sharp as the original. Reversing the plot is a workable reason for a sequel, though we would have preferred more of the first film’s peculiar humour. Start with *Chicken Run*, where we care enough about the birds to forgive the occasional overworked joke.

## Biography

Karey Kirkpatrick is an American screenwriter, director and producer. Born on 14 December 1964 in Monroe, Louisiana, he graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 1988 and began his career as a staff writer at Walt Disney Feature Animation.

He wrote the screenplay for the animated film *Chicken Run* (2000) from a story by Nick Park and Peter Lord, and returned for the story and screenplay of the sequel *Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget* (2023). His other screenwriting credits include *The Rescuers Down Under* (1990), *James and the Giant Peach* (1996), *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (2005), *Over the Hedge* (2006), *Charlotte's Web* (2006) and *The Spiderwick Chronicles* (2008). He has also directed *Over the Hedge*, *Imagine That* (2009) and *Smallfoot* (2018).

Kirkpatrick's older brother is songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick, with whom he has collaborated on stage musicals including *Something Rotten!* (2015).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, themoviedb.org.*

## On Fi1m (3)

### Directed (1)

- *Over the Hedge* (2006), Fi1m 73, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/over-the-hedge.md)

### Wrote (2) — the average rests on these

- *Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget* (2023), Fi1m 64, Executive Producer, Story, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/chicken-run-dawn-of-the-nugget.md)
- *Chicken Run* (2000), Fi1m 84, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/chicken-run.md)

## Complete filmography (21)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Over The Hedge 2* (2027), Writer
- *Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget* (2023), Screenplay, Story, Executive Producer — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/chicken-run-dawn-of-the-nugget.md)
- *The True Don Quixote* (2019), Executive Producer
- *Smallfoot* (2018), Executive Producer, Screenplay, Director, Screenstory, Songs
- *The Smurfs 2* (2013), Screenplay
- *Imagine That* (2009), Director
- *The Spiderwick Chronicles* (2008), Producer, Screenplay
- *Flakes* (2007), Producer, Writer
- *Charlotte's Web* (2006), Screenplay
- *Hammy's Boomerang Adventure* (2006), Creative Consultant
- *Over the Hedge* (2006), Screenplay, Director — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/over-the-hedge.md)
- *Madagascar* (2005), Creative Consultant — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/madagascar.md)
- *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (2005), Screenplay
- *The Little Vampire* (2000), Writer
- *Chicken Run* (2000), Screenplay — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/chicken-run.md)
- *The Road to El Dorado* (2000), Additional Dialogue
- *Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves* (1997), Screenplay
- *James and the Giant Peach* (1996), Screenplay
- *Timon and Pumbaa* (1995), series, Writer
- *The Rescuers Down Under* (1990), Screenplay
- *Snoopy Unleashed*, Screenplay

## Awards

### Other awards — 0 won, 2 nominated

- Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical 2015: Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (nominated), for *Something Rotten!*
- Tony Award for Best Original Score 2015: Tony Award for Best Original Score (nominated), for *Something Rotten!*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/karey-kirkpatrick