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RANK NISSEN grew up in Auburn, Calif., and attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. He spent three years in the Army before graduating with honors with a bachelor of arts degree.

After college, Nissen went to Canada to visit friends-and stayed for 25 years. While touring Toronto, he visited the Cinera animation studios and received a job offer. Deciding to relocate, he worked in commercial and educational programming for the next five years, cutting his teeth in the world of animation.

From there, Nissen moved on to Nelvana, where he was co-director on several half-hour series, including Cosmic Christmas and The Devil and Daniel Mouse. In addition, he worked in visual and story development on other projects such as George Lucas's Ewoks and Droids series. He was lead animator on Rock and Rule and worked as a character designer, storyboard supervisor and dialogue writer on Pippi Longstocking Nissen also did story development for the animated feature Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland for the Japanese studio, T.M.S.

In 1996, at the recommendation of a friend who worked for Walt Disney Animation in Orlando, Nissen relocated to Los Angeles to work for Disney. He immediately began doing story work on features, such as Dinosaur and Tarzan, and worked as a storyboard artist and production designer on Treasure Planet, which he describes as a fabulous experience.

Nissen later branched out into television animation, working on Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas and Three Musketeers.

Nissen lives in Los Angeles.