---
name: "Travis Knight"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/travis-knight"
fi1m_id: "travis-knight"
imdb_id: "nm1325899"
tmdb_id: 1033661
wikidata_id: "Q7836302"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "13 September 1973"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 76
average_as: "director"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-22T02:17:12.510036+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."
---

# Travis Knight

## Identity

Travis Knight

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/travis-knight
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** travis-knight
- **IMDb ID:** nm1325899
- **TMDB ID:** 1033661
- **Wikidata ID:** Q7836302
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Knight, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7836302, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1325899/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1033661

Director and producer. Born 13 September 1973 in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 13 September 1973, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA
- **Active:** 2012–present
- **Also known as:** Трэвис Найт
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 4 directing, 2 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Chris Butler](https://film.one/person/chris-butler.md), [Arianne Sutner](https://film.one/person/arianne-sutner.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 3 Oscar nominations
- **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as director, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 75 (4), 2020s 72 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 76 to 76 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Genres:** Adventure 3, Action 2, Animation 2, Fantasy 2, Science Fiction 2, Family 1
- **Screen time:** 8 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $658m across 3 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Knight, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7836302, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1325899/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1033661

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Kubo and the Two Strings*](https://film.one/film/kubo-and-the-two-strings.md) (83), [*ParaNorman*](https://film.one/film/paranorman.md) (76), [*The Boxtrolls*](https://film.one/film/the-boxtrolls.md) (64)
- **Apple TV:** [*Bumblebee*](https://film.one/film/bumblebee.md) (78)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Masters of the Universe*](https://film.one/film/masters-of-the-universe.md) (58)

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

## Fi1m on Travis Knight

> Travis Knight takes silly things seriously and builds them frame by frame, which is why *Kubo and the Two Strings* and *Bumblebee* land. *Masters of the Universe* keeps stopping to tell us it knows it is silly, and the seriousness drains out.

Travis Knight's habit is to pick up something ridiculous and decline to hold it at arm's length. A Transformers spin-off, a toy line from the 1980s, a stop-motion fantasy: he approaches each as if it were a proper story with a proper person at the centre, and he storyboards the robots and the monsters with the same care he gives the quiet scenes. His own account of *Masters of the Universe* is the neatest summary of the method: "We take it sincerely – even when we're doing something that is objectively silly." When that holds, his spectacle is unusually easy to follow. You know where everyone is and what they want.

The route here was odd. He rapped under the name Chilly Tee in the early 1990s, then joined the Portland studio that became Laika, working as lead animator and producer on *Coraline*, *ParaNorman* and *The Boxtrolls* before running the place. He directed his first film, the stop-motion *Kubo and the Two Strings*, in 2016, and made his live-action debut with *Bumblebee* in 2018. In 2026 he released two films at once: the live-action *Masters of the Universe* and the stop-motion *Wildwood*, from the Colin Meloy novel. The writer Chris Butler has been with him on three of these and the producer Arianne Sutner on four, which suggests a director who likes a settled crew.

The sincerity is the strength and the test. *Kubo* is a large fantasy that never loses the boy inside it. *Bumblebee* took an old property and played it warm, small and sincere, and it did not need to keep telling us it knew what it was. *Masters of the Universe* cannot manage that. The cast is bright and Jared Leto's Skeletor is worth the evening, but the script cannot decide whether it is in on the joke or is the joke, and it nudges us in the ribs in almost every scene. We went in hoping for the *Bumblebee* trick and came out tired: somewhere past the ninety-minute mark of its 141 we stopped laughing at the reminders and started counting them. A film that trusts its own silliness does not need to keep confessing it.

So the question for Knight is whether the winking was his idea or the property's. His record says the property's. *Wildwood* puts him back in stop-motion, the medium he came up in and the one he has spent a career trying to push further, and it is Laika's most ambitious production yet. It is also a medium in which every frame is placed by hand and there is no time to nudge anyone. That may be exactly where he belongs.

## Biography

Travis Knight is an American filmmaker, animator and director. He serves as president and CEO of the stop-motion animation studio Laika.

Knight directed the Laika feature *Kubo and the Two Strings* (2016) and the live-action films *Bumblebee* (2018) and *Masters of the Universe* (2026). He has also produced several Laika productions, including *ParaNorman* (2012), *The Boxtrolls* (2014) and *Missing Link* (2019).

Born in Hillsboro, Oregon, Knight is the son of Nike co-founder Phil Knight. He has received three Academy Award nominations.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, dneg.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

### Directed (4) — the average rests on these

- *Masters of the Universe* (2026), Fi1m 58, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/masters-of-the-universe.md)
- *Wildwood* (2026), Fi1m 85, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/wildwood.md)
- *Bumblebee* (2018), Fi1m 78, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/bumblebee.md)
- *Kubo and the Two Strings* (2016), Fi1m 83, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/kubo-and-the-two-strings.md)

### Produced (2)

- *The Boxtrolls* (2014), Fi1m 64, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-boxtrolls.md)
- *ParaNorman* (2012), Fi1m 76, Producer, Animation — [page](https://film.one/film/paranorman.md)

## Complete filmography (15)

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

- *Wildwood* (2026), Director, Producer — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/wildwood.md)
- *Masters of the Universe* (2026), Director — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/masters-of-the-universe.md)
- *ParaNorman: The Thrifting* (2025), Producer
- *Missing Link* (2019), Producer
- *Bumblebee* (2018), Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/bumblebee.md)
- *Kubo and the Two Strings* (2016), Director, Producer, Animation — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/kubo-and-the-two-strings.md)
- *The Boxtrolls* (2014), Producer, Animation — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-boxtrolls.md)
- *ParaNorman* (2012), Producer, Animation — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/paranorman.md)
- *Coraline* (2009), Animation — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/coraline.md)
- *Joe Blow* (2004), CG Animator
- *Ananda* (2003), Animation
- *Piranesi*, Director
- *Atmosphere*, Producer
- *The Night Gardener*, Director
- *Audition*, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Travis Knight, Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and John Cena speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Bumblebee", at the San Diego Con](https://film.one/media/person/6659/gallery-bc07c3e5921b.jpg) Travis Knight, Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and John Cena speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Bumblebee", at the San Diego Con — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Travis_Knight%2C_Hailee_Steinfeld%2C_Jorge_Lendeborg_Jr._%26_John_Cena_%2842760619175%29.jpg/1280px-Travis_Knight%2C_Hailee_Steinfeld%2C_Jorge_Lendeborg_Jr._%26_John_Cena_%2842760619175%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Travis Knight speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Boxtrolls", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.](https://film.one/media/person/6659/gallery-9f7291d4f088.jpg) Travis Knight speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Boxtrolls", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Travis_Knight%2C_The_Boxtrolls%2C_2014_Comic-Con_1.jpg/1280px-Travis_Knight%2C_The_Boxtrolls%2C_2014_Comic-Con_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Travis Knight speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Boxtrolls", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.](https://film.one/media/person/6659/gallery-5eee553d0ccb.jpg) Travis Knight speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Boxtrolls", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/Travis_Knight%2C_The_Boxtrolls%2C_2014_Comic-Con_2.jpg/1280px-Travis_Knight%2C_The_Boxtrolls%2C_2014_Comic-Con_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Travis Knight](https://film.one/media/person/6659/gallery-4326a73877b1.jpg) Travis Knight — Thierry Sollerot from Vernon (Eure, Hte Normandie), FRANCE, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Travis_Knight_%2830000495292%29.jpg/1280px-Travis_Knight_%2830000495292%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Travis Knight](https://film.one/media/person/6659/gallery-9b6e5bbfb74c.jpg) Travis Knight — Image via TMDB
- ![Travis Knight speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Bumblebee", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please attri](https://film.one/media/person/6659/gallery-2974e826d877.jpg) Travis Knight speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Bumblebee", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please attri — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Travis_Knight_%2843663556441%29.jpg/1280px-Travis_Knight_%2843663556441%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 3 nominated

- 2020: Best Animated Feature (nominated), for *Missing Link*
- 2017: Best Animated Feature (nominated), for *Kubo and the Two Strings*
- 2015: Best Animated Feature (nominated), for *The Boxtrolls*

*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/travis-knight