Ben Burtt was born July 12, 1948 in Jamesville, NY. Burtt has been one of the leading creative forces in sound design for over 30 years. He is well known for his work in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Star Wars franchise, creating the sounds for the light saber and Darth Vader's breathing. He has won 4 Academy Awards and been nominated for many others.
His first work for Pixar was in 1984 on their first short film, The Adventures of André and Wally B.. At the time Burtt was working for Sprocket Systems, the Lucasfilm sound group. He is now working on creating the voices for the robots in WALL-E.