Rosana Sullivan is an American

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

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 mark ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, and executive producer. Since 2011, she has worked for

Pixar Animation Studios 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, Californ ...

. In 2019 she wrote and directed her first animated short film, ''

Kitbull ''Kitbull'' is a 2019 American traditionally animated short film directed and written by Rosana Sullivan, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the third film in Pixar's ''SparkShor ...

'', for which she received a nomination for the

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

at the

92nd Academy Awards The 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 2019 and took place on February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:00 p ...

Early life and education

Rosana Sullivan was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and grew up in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. She has one brother. When she was in high school at age 16, her father, a university professor of

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

, accepted a new job at the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

and the family relocated to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Sullivan initially studied for a career as a

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...

, enrolling at the

as a biology major. In her junior year, she took a course in portrait painting to satisfy an art credit and realized that art was her real calling. She spent her senior year at USF in the fine arts program, graduating in 2007, and then attended the

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, graduating in 2010.

Career

Sullivan worked as a lead character designer at Ooga Labs and a 2D artist at

Kabam Kabam (formerly Watercooler, Inc.) is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2006 and headquartered in Vancouver, BC. with offices in Montréal, QC, San Francisco, CA and Austin, Texas. The company creates, develops and publishes massive ...

before joining

in 2011. With Pixar, she has contributed to the 3D animated films '' Monsters University'', ''

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) an ...

'', ''

Piper Piper may refer to: People * Piper (given name) * Piper (surname) Arts and entertainment Fictional characters Comics * Piper (Morlock), in the Marvel Universe * Piper (Mutate), in the Marvel Universe Television * Piper Chapman, lea ...

'', and ''

Incredibles 2 ''Incredibles 2'' is a 2018 American computer-animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Written and directed by Brad Bird, it is the sequel to ''The Incredibles'' (2004) and the second ...

''. She was nominated for a 2015 Annie Award for outstanding achievement in storyboarding in an animated feature production for her work on ''The Good Dinosaur''. In February 2019 she wrote and directed her first animated film, a nine-minute traditionally animated short called ''

'', which is part of the ''

SparkShorts ''SparkShorts'' is a series of American independent animated short films produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It consists of a program in which Pixar's employees are given six months and limited budgets to develop animated short films that were or ...

'' series. In April 2019 she published an autobiographical

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

, ''Mommy Sayang'', describing the life of a girl and her mother in a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n village. This story, along with others that she has written, was inspired by her mother's roots in Malaysia. In January 2021, it was announced that she would direct a feature film for Pixar.

Filmography

Sources:

Accolade(s)

Bibliography

References

External links

*
"Episode 012: Rosana Sullivan – Pixar Story Artist" (audio)Pixar's Rosana Sullivan ’07 keeps 'finding ways to make art' (video)
American animators American animated film directors American film directors American screenwriters American women film directors American women artists Academy of Art University alumni English-language film directors University of San Francisco alumni Pixar people American women animators Artists from South Carolina Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-animator-stub