During his time at CalArts, Balda was hired by
LucasArts as an intern to create the animated opening credit sequence for the
graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle. He started his career as an animator by working at
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), in films including
The Mask as graphics animator,
Jumanji as animation supervisor, and
Mars Attacks! as character animator. This collaboration would lead to him becoming head of layout on
Despicable Me. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools. The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012, by
Universal Pictures and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million. In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film,
Minions, this time alongside
Pierre Coffin. The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015, by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion. In 2017, Balda co-directed
Despicable Me 3. In his role as co-director, he pushed for the film to have a more vibrant color palette than its predecessors. On June 7, 2024, it was announced Balda would make his live-action directorial debut with
The Sheep Detectives, a film adaptation of Leonie Swann's book
Three Bags Full, set to be produced by
Amazon MGM Studios. == Personal life ==