Hal Hickel

At the age of 12, Hickel wrote a letter to Lucasfilm, outlining his ideas for a sequel to the original Star Wars movie (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), and received a polite rejection letter from producer Gary Kurtz.

A native of Bailey, Colorado, Hickel joined the Film Graphics Program at CalArts in 1982.

Hearing that a new Star Wars trilogy was in pre-production, Hickel applied for a transfer to ILM on the chance that he might get to work on the prequels.

He was first assigned as an animator on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, but was eventually assigned to work on The Phantom Menace, and later its sequel, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, where he was responsible for the unique movement of the Droideka destroyer droids.

In 2007, Hickel won the BAFTA and the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects along with John Knoll, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall, for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.