John Christian Wedge (born March 20, 1957) is an American filmmaker, voice actor and cartoonist. He is known for directing the films Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005), Epic (2013), and Monster Trucks (2016). He is a co-founder of the now-defunct animation studio Blue Sky Studios and voices the character Scrat in the Ice Age franchise since 2002. Early life Wedge was born in Binghamton, New York. During his teenage years, Wedge lived in Watertown, New York which was rumored to be the inspiration for the town where his film "Robots" takes place, however he later dismissed this in an interview. He became interested in animation when he was 12 years old: "Back then, there was a TV special about kids making cut-out animation in a workshop—as I recall it was Yellow Ball Workshop—it was a clear technique to follow and I followed it. That fascinated me and it got me started. It was so simple, effective and magical in outcome and I stuck with creating things throughout my childhood, teenage years and then college." He attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, graduating in 1975. He received his BFA in Film from State University of New York at Purchase in Purchase, New York in 1981, and subsequently earned his MA in computer graphics and art education at the Ohio State University. He has taught animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he met his future film directing partner, Carlos Saldanha. Career In 1982, Wedge worked for MAGi/SynthaVision, where he was a principal animator on the Disney film Tron, credited as a scene programmer. Some of his other works include The Brave Little Toaster. Wedge is the co-founder of the now defunct Blue Sky Studios, once one of the premier computer animation studios, and was its Vice President of Creative Development until the studio was closed by The Walt Disney Company in 2021. He is the owner of WedgeWorks, a film production company founded by Wedge. In the 1990s, he and his studio worked on CGI effects for the movies Alien Resurrection and Titan A.E. In 1998, he won an Academy Award for the short animated film Bunny. Wedge later directed Blue Sky Studios' first computer-animated film, 2002's Ice Age, and served as a producer for its sequels. He also voices Scrat in the film series, performing the character's "squeaks and squeals." In 2005, Wedge directed Robots, based on