Bird also provides the voice of costume designer Edna Mode. As an inside joke, the character Syndrome was based on Bird's likeness (as was Mr. Incredible) and according to him, he did not realize the joke until the movie was too far into production to have it changed.

Inspired by Q from the James Bond franchise, Edna is widely believed to have been based primarily on costume designer Edith Head, although there continues to be constant speculation as to which celebrities inspired Edna, particularly Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Iris Apfel and actress Linda Hunt.

Bird shared that his sister, Susan, had been killed by gun violence at the hands of her own husband. “When you shoot somebody,” Bird solemnly reflected, “you're not just killing that person. You're killing a part of all the people that love that person.”

Upon graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Bird began working for Disney. He left the company shortly after working on The Fox and the Hound in 1981. Bird next worked on animated television series, such as a Family Dog episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories.