As a child, Yang Yu dreamed of being a comic artist, but he chose safer studies: pharmacy, at Sichuan University's West China school. In his third year, he began teaching himself 3D animation.

After graduating he joined an advertising agency and animated in the evenings. Then, with his parents' support, he quit his job to devote himself to a short film. In 2009, See Through (打，打个大西瓜) passed ten million views online and won more than thirty awards in China and abroad.

He then founded his studio in Chengdu. In 2019, Ne Zha (哪吒之魔童降世) passed 5 billion yuan and 140 million admissions. In 2025, Ne Zha 2 became the highest-grossing animated film in world cinema history.

His personal story has become famous in China. Shortly after he quit his job, his father died. For three years, the household's only income was his mother's pension, a little over 1,000 yuan a month. Jiaozi shut himself away to work on his short film, living on that pension. He has told the story of those years of gambling himself in interviews.

Jiaozi reinvents myths with very popular humour, battered characters and action scenes of rare scale. His films are about fate and prejudice: his Nezha, born a "demon", rejects the destiny imposed on him. He is known for a perfectionism that explains the long production years behind each film.