The original story that inspired Despicable Me was created by a writer called Sergio Pablos. However, the film, released in july 2010, was directed by Pierre Coffin, a French director with a background in animation, and Chris Renaud, who is also an illustrator and worked on the famous Ice Age films.
All the animation work was done by Mac Guff. This was at the time an independent French animation studio, but it now belongs to the American Company Illumination Entertainment. This is the company that produced Despicable Me - in fact it was the company's first production, in partnershop with Universal Pictures.
The film, which is voiced by Steve Carell in the starring role as the villain Gru, was a huge success with takings of over half a billion dollars. There is now a sequel, Despicable Me 2, which appeared on 3 July 2013.
You can learn more about the sequel here.