Hal Hickel began at Industrial Light & Magic in 1996 as an animator on The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He was promoted to lead animator and animated several characters on Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In 2000, Hickel was promoted to animation supervisor and worked with Dennis Murren, a multi-Academy Award-winning effects supervisor, on... A.I. Artificial Intelligence by Steven Spielberg. Since then, Hickel has overseen the animation work on Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Iron Man, and the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films. In 2007, his work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was recognized with the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Visual Effects.

Hickel was the Animation Supervisor on Guillermo del Toro's science fiction film 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 on ILM's first animated feature film, "Rango," which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. 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 nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA, and VES awards.

Most recently, Hal Hickel oversaw the animation of the train robbery sequence in Solo: A Star Wars Story and is now the Animation Supervisor for The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm's first Star Wars series.