Nathan Greno (born March 22, 1975) is an American film director, story artist, and writer. He is best known for directing Walt Disney Animation Studios' Tangled (2010) and Skydance Animation's Swapped (2026).
Career Inspired by Disney films since the first grade, Greno started as a young boy writing and drawing comic books and strips. In 1996, during his junior year at Columbus College of Art and Design, he was hired by Walt Disney Feature Animation. He started there as an animation clean-up artist on Mulan (1998). Being creatively unfulfilled, he switched to story development. He then contributed as a story artist on Brother Bear (2003), wrote a screenplay and worked as a story artist on Meet the Robinsons (2007), and supervised the story on Bolt (2008). With the short film Super Rhino (2009), he made his directorial debut. In 2006, he took over a long-in-development project Tangled, based on the fairy tale Rapunzel and chose Byron Howard, with whom he had collaborated on Bolt and Super Rhino, as a directing partner. The film was released in 2010 to a great critical and financial reception, and was followed in 2012 by Greno and Howard-directed short film Tangled Ever After.
Greno was at one point set to direct an animated film titled Gigantic. Loosely based on the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, it was scheduled for a 2020 release. However, in October 2017, it was announced that the film had been shelved.
In February 2018, it was announced that Greno had signed a multi-year contract with Skydance Animation to write and direct an animated film titled Powerless, as well as consult on projects in development. Following retooling of the film's original "teenage superhero story" premise, Powerless was retitled Pookoo, then finally released in May 2026 under the title Swapped.
Filmography Films YearFilmCredited as Director Writer Head ofStory CreativeAdvisor StoryArtist Other Voice Notes 1998 Mulan Breakdown Animator: Mushu 2003 Brother Bear 2005 Chicken Little 2007 Meet the Robinsons Lefty 2008 Bolt Additional Voices 2009 The Princess and the Frog Disney Story Trust - uncredited 2010 Tangled Guard 1/Thug 1 2011 Winnie the Pooh 2012 Wreck-It Ralph 2013 Frozen 2014 Big Hero 6 Creative Leadership 2016 Zootopia Moana 2024 Spellbound 2026 Swapped Root Snake 1
Shorts and TV specials Year TitleDirectorWriterStoryArtistOtherVoice 2000 John Henry 2009 Super Rhino Prep & Landing Dasher 2012 Tangled Ever After Guard/Maximus/Stabbington Brothers 2021 Blush
Cancelled feature film projects Cancelled Year of Release Title Director 2016, 2018, 2020 Gigantic
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