PHILIP ANDERSON LORD and CHRISTOPHER MILLER, as Academy Award-winning animators, writers, directors and producers, you’ve captivated and delighted audiences worldwide through creative film and television storytelling full of wit and optimism.

You arrived as students at Dartmouth in 1993 from opposite corners of the country, but a shared interest in animation, fueled by film professor David Ehrlich, made you fast friends. 

With your animated shorts earning accolades and gaining a following even before you graduated, you caught the attention of a studio executive, effectively launching you on a path toward realizing your childhood dreams. Before long, your support of one another’s ideas helped you rise to Hollywood fame in a creative partnership that would become a model for collaborators everywhere.

With imagination and inventiveness, you created a series of animated box office hits, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which won the 2019 Oscar for Best Animated Feature. You extended that success to live-action film and television projects, which included fresh takes on old favorites like 21 Jump Street.

From edgy, animated cult classics like Clone High to genre-crossing television series like The Afterparty, your range is as broad as your talent is deep, making you one of the most highly sought-after duos in Hollywood. 

Big screen or small, your distinctive style, attention to detail and hilarious and emotional storytelling have led to outstanding commercial success, including with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which shattered box office expectations in its worldwide opening this month.

For your outstanding body of work in film and television entertainment, your commitment to the arts and to advancing animation as an art form, and your unparalleled dedication to each other and your craft, Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts.