Thurop Van Orman

He made his directorial debut with The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), and wrote the screenplay for its upcoming sequel.

Van Orman was born in Norfolk, Virginia and grew up in Panama City, Florida. As a child, he wanted to live closer to the docks and would always love to adventure. He read plenty of adventure novels including from Jules Verne. He and his family moved to Salt Lake City when he was 12. He dreamed about being self-sustaining and wanting to build a hut. He later got a job as a janitor and moved to Shell Island at St. Andrews State Park. He spent a summer living in the jungles of Mexico.

In 2001, he made a pitch pilot for The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Van Orman worked for the video game company Zantaro before going on to study character animation at the California Institute of the Arts. He interned for The Powerpuff Girls during his attendance. Van Orman was a storyboard artist and co-writer for Camp Lazlo, and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. He was also the supervising producer for both Adventure Time and Sanjay and Craig, but left the latter show after one season. In 2015, Van Orman provided concept art for the film adaptation of The Little Prince.

In 2013, Van Orman announced on Twitter that he was creating a new series titled North Woods. This was confirmed in a 2014 BuzzFeed article. In June 2024, Rovio Entertainment announced that Van Orman will serve as executive producer and screenwriter for The Angry Birds Movie 3.

Artists who have influenced Van Orman include Joe Murray, Gary Larson, Jim Henson, Stephen Hillenburg, Craig McCracken, E. H. Shepard, Richard Scarry, Maurice Sendak, Mercer Mayer, Ronald Searle, Robert Crumb, Sergio Aragonés and Max Fleischer.