12 Facts About Dan Santat

Dan Santat was born on 1975 and is an American author and illustrator known for his children's book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, which won the 2015 Caldecott Medal for distinguished illustration.

Dan Santat wrote The Guild of Geniuses and created the Disney Channel animated series The Replacements.

Dan Santat was awarded the 2023 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for A First Time for Everything.

Dan Santat then attended the Art Center College of Design, graduating with distinction in 2001.

Dan Santat worked as an environment artist for the video game company Activision for a series of Spider-Man games.

Dan Santat followed that up illustrating the first Nanny Piggins book written by R A Spratt, and the first Otto Undercover book series written by Rhea Perlman.

In 2005, Dan Santat created the show The Replacements for Disney Channel.

Dan Santat has spoken of his admiration of those who can do the drawing necessary for animation.

Dan Santat spoke of the challenges of working on The Replacements, "Working creatively with a large corporation and numerous executives was rather frustrating because there was a feeling that there was a process of homogenization to try to appeal to as many kids as possible" and says he prefers the freedom of illustrative styles afforded by book editors.

Dan Santat is a commercial illustrator, with such clients as The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, Village Voice, GQ Russia, Macworld, Macy's, and many others.

Dan Santat's work has appeared at gallery shows - including the I Am 8 Bit art show in 2006,2007, and 2008.

Dan Santat has completed illustrations for over 60 books, 14 of which were published, in 2014 alone.