Employee Spotlight: Greg Verreault

It seems that Lucasfilm was always in the stars for Senior Animator Greg Verreault. In 2022, he attended his first Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim where he met voice acting legend Dee Bradley Baker, who most recently performed many of the lead roles in Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-24). “I was wearing a Hunter clone helmet because I didn’t have a full costume, but I was like, I’ll just wear a helmet. I love this guy,” Verreault tells Lucasfilm.com. “And I wanted to represent Bad Batch because I was such a fan of the show. He signed my helmet and I literally told him, ‘Man, you’re just one of my favorite talents in voice acting. And someday, I swear to God, I will animate you somehow. I’ll find a way. I’ll try to join a project that you’re on.’”

Verreault kept to his word, getting hired onto the Lucasfilm Animation team to help conclude the journey of Clone Force 99 in Season 3 of The Bad Batch. He crossed paths with Baker again at the Season 2 wrap party, where he had brought that same helmet for the entire animation team to sign.

That is just one of many magical moments Verreault has experienced on his Lucasfilm Animation journey so far. Born and raised in Québec City, Canada, Verreault had always set out for animation as a career, having been inspired as a kid by series like Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-08) and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-20). He studied at Laval University, focusing largely on 2D animation.

“I just wanted to do epic scale storytelling and adventure but with the unique qualities of animation,” says Verreault. “Animation brought that extra element to those classic epic stories that you see in live-action, like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. They had the same effect for me that Avatar: The Last Airbender had in terms of their epicness, but on top of that, animation really pushes the visuals of a story. The character design, backgrounds, movement – everything is stylized and beautiful. The distinct qualities of animation clicked for me and I decided I want to do exactly that.”

Verreault started his animation career at Mercury Filmworks, an Ottawa animation studio, focusing on Disney television projects such as Wonder Over Yonder (2013-16), before moving over to the feature film world with Sony Pictures Imageworks. There, he got to work on a wide variety of projects, including one of his personal favorites, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Verreault later moved to the United States where he joined Blue Sky Studios, then moved on to Blizzard Entertainment to work on video game cinematics, such as Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft. His journey eventually brought him to Industrial Light & Magic’s Vancouver studio, where he served as a Senior Animator on Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021), before joining Disney Animation on projects like Encanto (2021).

Verreault’s introduction to Lucasfilm Animation came once again with the magic of Star Wars Celebration. When he attended the 2022 event in Anaheim, he met artists who put him in touch with Animation Director Keith Kellogg. “A friend of mine filmed a video of me saying, ‘Hey Keith, I’m Greg. I’m an animator. If you ever have a chance to meet….’ I was just trying to connect and learn about his career. It’s fascinating to me not just as a fan, but I wanted to know about his animation, his path, and what he did. I’d come to respect artists like Keith and [Cinematography, Lighting & VFX Director] Joel Aron after watching the Clone Wars documentaries on DVD. After sending that video greeting, I happened to be visiting San Francisco and we met up for lunch, which turned into kind of an interview because that’s when he told me that Lucasfilm Animation might have an opening for a new job and everything happened so magically.”

The opportunity to work for Lucasfilm Animation was a dream come true for Verreault. He grew up watching Star Wars, his parents introducing him to the original trilogy on VHS. His real passion for the galaxy began with the prequel trilogy. “One of my core memories is going to see Revenge of the Sith on opening night,” the animator explains. “I think it was midnight or 1:00 AM. That was a core memory of just being there and thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is the final piece of the story.’ I’ll always remember this.”

When the Star Wars: The Clone Wars film was released in August of 2008, followed by the TV series just two months later, Verreault’s love for the franchise, and animation as a whole, grew. The stars truly aligned when he joined the animation team, with Verreault explaining, “It’s special because obviously I’m a big Star Wars fan, but I studied animation. I love animation and Star Wars animation was more special to me than even the movies. That’s why I cannot believe this is happening. How lucky can a little Canadian boy from Québec City be to now get to work here with these people that I’ve admired for so long?”

As a Senior Animator, Verreault often wears a lot of hats. While most of his job is animating, he also spends time helping guide Lucasfilm Animation’s overseas partners, like CGCG, Inc. in Taiwan. He provides fixes or touch-ups to other crew member’s shots, and even works on marketing materials, helping create pieces like the recent poster to commemorate Lucasfilm Animation’s 20th anniversary.

Recently, Verreault even got the opportunity to travel to Taiwan to work directly with CGCG. “I went for almost three months to train, supervise, and work with the team over there which was an amazing experience,” he explains, “just to be on the front line with the artists. There’s so much talent over there. Because it’s overseas work, sometimes it’s hard to have a connection, so to now finally be there on the ground and really get a new project started with all of them was just a magical experience. That was also my first time stepping into a more supervisor type of position, which I really loved. And now I keep in touch with them all and it’s just nice to have that connection.”

Verreault has animated on a number of Lucasfilm projects, including Season 3 of The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (2024), and the newly released Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld (2025), where he had an opportunity to develop his leadership skills by giving performance notes on the third episode of Asajj Ventress’s arc. “That episode is just so special to me because in every shot I’ve worked alongside the animator to help them reach what we were envisioning for it,” Verreault shares. “So that episode was definitely very, very special to me.”

Verreault is now working on the recently announced series Maul: Shadow Lord, which was unveiled at Star Wars Celebration Japan — an event he was lucky enough to attend in person. “The title for the series came up and the surprise of the audience was the loudest applause I’ve ever heard. We couldn’t have wished for a better reception. I don’t know how to describe it. You just had to be there to feel the room shake. This moment is truly engraved in my brain forever,” says Verreault.

Though he certainly loves Darth Maul, when asked who his favorite character was to animate, Verreault selected General Grievous. His moment to animate Grievous came with Tales of the Empire, in another form of the stars aligning. “Internally we had our fair share of work. Everything was planned, but I literally begged Keith,” Verreault recalls. “I was saying, ‘Please, just give it to me. I’ll make it work somehow with the schedule, but give me one scene of Grievous.’ Keith saw how much it meant to me and graciously let me animate his entrance as well as some light saber action when he’s fighting Morgan Elsbeth’s mother on Dathomir. That was amazing because I’ve loved Grievous ever since I was a kid watching Revenge of the Sith when he first appeared.”

For those seeking careers in animation, Verreault shares, “Never give up. Keep at it. Animation is a skill that takes a lot of time and effort to develop. Train your eye and stay inspired. Constantly look at what’s being done out there, from animated films, anime, video games to live action. But most importantly, animation is a team effort, so always be kind and carry a positive team spirit.”

The Bad Batch, Tales of the Empire, and Tales of the Underworld are now streaming on Disney+. Catch Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord streaming on Disney+ in 2026.

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Logan Peck is a publicity assistant at Lucasfilm, a lifelong fan of Star Wars, and an Anakin Skywalker enthusiast.

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