Sam Fell started his career as writer/director of the short film The Big Cheese for 3 Peach Animation/Channel4. He then joined Aardman as a director and animator on commercials and short projects like Pop, Chump, Peter Lord's' Oscar-nominated short film Wat's Pig, and the BBC series Rex the Runt.

During that time he also developed a children's TV series called Rabbits! and several feature animation projects including Flushed Away.  When Flushed Away was greenlit to become Aardman’s first CG project he moved to Los Angeles to direct the movie (with David Bowers) at Dreamworks Animation studios. The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2007. 

From 2008 to 2009 he directed (with Rob Stevenhagen) The Tale of Despereaux for Universal Studios in London at Framestore.

From there Sam moved to Portland, Oregan to direct Laika's second feature film ParaNorman (with writer/director Chris Butler) which was released in August 2012 and nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA in 2013.

Since then he has been directing commercials and developing long form projects.