Enrico Casarosa (born November 20, 1971) is an Italian-American

storyboard artist A storyboard artist (sometimes called a story artist or visualizer) creates storyboards for advertising agencies and film productions. Work A storyboard artist visualizes stories and sketches frames of the story. Quick pencil drawings and marke ...

, film director, and writer who works at

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...

. In 2012, he was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for the animated short film '' La Luna''. In 2022, he was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for animated films. An animated feature is defined by the Academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by- ...

for ''

Luca The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...

'' (2021).

Early life

Casarosa was born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, Italy, and moved to New York City in his twenties, to study animation at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

and Illustration at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) and focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It ...

Career

He then worked as a background designer and storyboard artist on various

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

TV series, including '' 101 Dalmatians: The Series'' and ''

PB&J Otter ''PB&J Otter'' is an American animated musical television series. It premiered on Disney Channel's preschool block (Playhouse Disney) on March 15, 1998. A total of 65 episodes were produced during the course of its three-season run, with the fina ...

''. Before joining Pixar, Casarosa worked as a storyboard artist at

Blue Sky Studios Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 22, 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their e ...

on ''

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

''. In 2002, Casarosa joined Pixar, where he worked as a story artist on ''

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

'', ''

Ratatouille Ratatouille ( , ), oc, ratatolha , is a French Provençal dish of stewed vegetables which originated in Nice, and is sometimes referred to as ''ratatouille niçoise'' (). Recipes and cooking times differ widely, but common ingredients include ...

'', '' Up'' and ''

Cars 2 ''Cars 2'' is a 2011 American computer-animated Spy film, spy comedy film produced by Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Cars (film), Cars'' (2006), the second film in the Cars (franchise), ''Cars'' f ...

''. In late 2004, Casarosa started a drawing marathon community called ''SketchCrawl'' and has been organizing the event ever since. In 2011, his short film '' La Luna'' premiered at the

Annecy International Animated Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

in France, and was released theatrically with Pixar's '' Brave'' in 2012. He then worked as head of story on ''

The Good Dinosaur ''The Good Dinosaur'' is a 2015 American computer-animated adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film was directed by Peter Sohn (in his feature directorial debut) and p ...

'' when Bob Peterson was directing the project beginning in 2011, and as a story artist on '' Coco''. Casarosa most recently directed the Pixar Animation Studios film ''

'', released on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

on June 18, 2021, in the United States. The film received generally positive reviews from critics for its nostalgic feel and acting and the film won a

Hollywood Critics Association The Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) is a film critic organization in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2016 as the Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society and renamed in 2019. History In 2016, Scott Menzel, Scott Mantz, and Ashley M ...

award for Best Picture. In October 2022, Cararosa was confirmed to be developing another original Pixar feature film.

Filmography

Films

Shorts

Featurettes and TV

Bibliography

* ''The Adventures of Mia, Volume One'' (2001) graphic novel * ''Fragments'' (2001) art book with

Ronnie Del Carmen Ronnie del Carmen (born December 31, 1959) is a Filipino animation writer, director, story artist, story supervisor and production designer. He co-directed and was one of the story writers for the 2015 Pixar film '' Inside Out'', for which he ...

* ''The Adventures of Mia, Volume Two'' (2004) graphic novel * ''Fragments Intermezzo'' (2004) art book * '' Flight, Volume One'' (2004) part of a larger comic anthology * ''Three Trees Make a Forest'' (2007) exhibition art book with

and Tadahiro Uesugi * ''Totoro Forest Project'' (2008) with

Daisuke Tsutsumi (born November 6, 1974) is a Japanese animator and illustrator living in San Francisco, California. He is a former art director of Pixar. Biography Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, he is married to , a jewelry artist and the niece of acclaime ...

, and Yukino Pang * ''The Venice Chronicles'' (2008) * ''Disney Picture Book: La Luna'' (2012) in support of '' La Luna'' * ''Disney Pixar: The Art of Luca'' (2021) in support of ''

Awards and nominations

Special projects

In 2008, Enrico Casarosa (along with

Ronnie del Carmen Ronnie del Carmen (born December 31, 1959) is a Filipino animation writer, director, story artist, story supervisor and production designer. He co-directed and was one of the story writers for the 2015 Pixar film '' Inside Out'', for which he ...

and Yukino Pang) initiated the Totoro Forest Project, a fundraising exhibition/auction to support the non-profit Totoro Forest Foundation. This initiative also produced a corresponding art book reprinting the various pieces contributed and included the likes of

James Jean James Jean is a Taiwanese-American visual artist working primarily in painting and drawing. He lives and works in Los Angeles, where he moved from New York in 2003. Early life Jean was born in Taiwan and raised in New Jersey. During his early e ...

Charles Vess Charles Vess (born June 10, 1951) is an American fantasy artist and comics artist who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His influences include British "Golden Age" book illustrator Arthur Rackham, Czech Art Nouveau pain ...

Iain McCaig Iain McCaig (born March 19, 1957) is an American artist, writer, and filmmaker. He was involved in the '' Star Wars'' franchise and many other iconic film and book projects, including an album cover for Jethro Tull's Broadsword and the Beast.Rei ...

and

William Joyce William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War. After moving from New York to Ireland and subsequently to England, J ...

among others.

References

External links

* 1971 births Fashion Institute of Technology alumni Italian emigrants to the United States Italian film directors Living people Film people from Genoa Pixar people School of Visual Arts alumni Italian storyboard artists Blue Sky Studios people {{Italy-film-bio-stub