Hal Hickel joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1996 as animator for The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He was promoted to principal animator and was given responsibility for the animation of several characters in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. In 2000, Hickel was promoted to animation supervisor, joining multiple Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren on Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence. His special interest in animation lies in the challenge of integrating fantastic characters and creatures into live-action films. Since then, Hickel has overseen animation work on Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, Iron Man and the first three films in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In 2007, his work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was recognized with an Academy Award® for Best Achievement in Visual Effects and a BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.

Hickel was the Animation Supervisor for Guillermo del Toro's sci-fi epic Pacific Rim, for which he received his fifth BAFTA nomination and a VES Nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects. Prior to that, he was the Animation Director for ILM's first animated feature, Rango, which received an Academy Award for Best Animated Film. In 2016, Hickel took on the task of animating the epic battle between Orcs and humans in Warcraft. He served as Animation Supervisor on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which earned him Oscar, BAFTA and VES nominations for visual effects.

Most recently, he oversaw the animation for the train robbery sequence in Solo: A Star Wars Story and is now Animation Supervisor on Lucasfilm's first Star Wars TV show, The Mandalorian.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Hickel studied Film Graphics at the California Institute of the Arts before being hired by Will Vinton Studios as a claymation animator and motion control operator for commercials and television specials featuring the California Raisins, among other characters. Hickel left Vinton in 1994 to join Pixar as an animator on their first animated feature, Toy Story. Upon completing Toy Story, Hickel was hired by ILM.