Kyle Balda (born March 9, 1971) is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud; Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), with Pierre Coffin; and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val.

[1] He studied at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1990s and dropped out after two years for a job he was offered.

[1][2][3] During his time at CalArts, Balda was hired by LucasArts as an intern to create the animated opening credit sequence for the graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle.

[6] In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, Minions, this time alongside Pierre Coffin.

[10] On June 7, 2024, it was announced Balda would make his live-action directorial debut with Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie, a film adaptation of Leonie Swann's book of the same name, set to be produced by Amazon MGM Studios.