Mark Swift is a British film producer at DreamWorks Animation.
Mark Swift was born in Bearwood, West Midlands in England to Jim Swift, a bus driver, and Eileen, a cleaner, with Mark being the fifth of seven children. Mark is also the uncle of James 'Paddy' Swift, an up-and-coming amateur boxer and property investor who owns a substantial property portfolio across Birmingham. He was raised in Birmingham, attending school in Edgbaston at Cardinal Newman School and at St Philip's College before taking economics at Manchester University.
After graduation, Swift became acquainted with American filmmaker Steven Spielberg after being hired as a runner for the 1988 animated/live-action film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which was shot in London. He later became an assistant production manager at Spielberg's Amblimation, an animation studio he worked at from 1989 to 1995.
After Spielberg co-founded the film studio DreamWorks SKG with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994, Swift moved to the United States to work at DreamWorks Animation. At DreamWorks, Swift served as production supervisor for The Prince of Egypt (1998) and as production manager for The Road to El Dorado (2000). His role as a film producer began with the 2004 film Shark Tale, for which he served as associate producer; a year later, he received full producer credit alongside Teresa Cheng for the short film The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper. By 2008, Swift received his first full producer credit for a feature-length film in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, released in November 2008. He would eventually serve as producer for the succeeding Madagascar films: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) and Penguins of Madagascar (2014).
In the 2010s, Swift pushed for an adaptation of the Captain Underpants book series among DreamWorks executives, having enjoyed reading the books with his children and knowing that the studio already acquired the adaptation rights. Although CEO Jeffery Katzenberg was not inclined to adapting the book series, the project was announced in 2013, and Swift was brought onboard to produce Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) alongside Mireille Soria. Swift helped ensure that the film's computer animation style remained a faithful translation of author Dav Pilkey's illustrations for the books.
In 2017, in the aftermath of Comcast's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation (through NBCUniversal), Swift was brought on as producer for The Croods: A New Age, in which he helped director Joel Crawford in deciding how to revise the story from initial scripts while maintaining its basic premise. The film was eventually released during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and in recent years, Swift continued serving as producer for films involving Crawford and Januel Mercado, such as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) and Forgotten Island (2026). He has since cited Puss in Boots as his favorite among the films he has produced for DreamWorks.
Swift is married to an American wife, with whom he has three children in San Francisco. He has described himself as a lapsed Catholic.
| Year | Title | Director | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Shark Tale | Vicky Jenson Bibo Bergeron Rob Letterman |
as associate producer |
| 2005 | The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper | Gary Trousdale | short film with Teresa Cheng |
| 2007 | Bee Movie | Simon J. Smith Steve Hickner |
as co-producer |
| 2008 | Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa | Eric Darnell Tom McGrath |
with Mireille Soria |
| 2011 | Megamind: The Button of Doom | Simon J. Smith | short film |
| 2012 | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted | Eric Darnell Conrad Vernon Tom McGrath |
with Mireille Soria |
| 2014 | Penguins of Madagascar | Eric Darnell Simon J. Smith |
with Lara Breay |
| 2017 | Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie | David Soren | with Mireille Soria |
| 2020 | The Croods: A New Age | Joel Crawford | |
| 2022 | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | Joel Crawford Januel Mercado (co-director) |
|
| 2023 | Puss in Boots: The Trident | Matt Flynn | short film as executive producer |
| 2026 | Forgotten Island | Joel Crawford Januel Mercado |
| Year | Title | Director | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Dear Diary: World's First Pranks | Januel P. Mercado | short film with Joel Crawford, Januel P. Mercado, James Ryan |
| Year | Title | Credited as | Director | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | An American Tail: Fievel Goes West | Production assistant | Phil Nibbelink Simon Wells |
|
| 1993 | We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story | Assistant to directors | Dick & Ralph Zondag Phil Nibbelink Simon Wells |
|
| 1995 | Balto | Assistant production manager | Simon Wells | |
| 1998 | The Prince of Egypt | Production supervisor | Brenda Chapman Steve Hickner Simon Wells |
|
| 2000 | The Road to El Dorado | Production manager | Bibo Bergeron Don Paul |
|
| 2009 | Merry Madagascar | N/a | David Soren | television special special thanks |
| Year | Award-giving body | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 45th Annie Awards | Best Animated Feature | Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie | Nominated | |
| 2021 | 78th Golden Globes | Best Animated Feature Film | The Croods: A New Age | Nominated | |
| 48th Annie Awards | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |||
| 2023 | 80th Golden Globes | Best Animated Feature Film | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | Nominated | |
| 76th British Academy Film Awards | Best Animated Film | Nominated | |||
| 50th Annie Awards | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |||
| 95th Academy Awards | Best Animated Feature Film | Nominated |
'I would read this [Captain Underpants] with my kids and it would be just laugh-out-loud funny,' Swift said. 'We think we've brought the incredible originality of the books to the big screen.'