Rosana Sullivan is an American filmmaker and storyboard artist. Since 2011, she has worked for

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney S ...

. She wrote and directed her first animated short film, ''

Kitbull ''Kitbull'' is a 2019 American animated buddy film, buddy-Drama (film and television), drama short film and viral video written and directed by Rosana Sullivan, produced by Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios M ...

'' (2019), 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 ...

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 ...

Early life and education

Rosana Sullivan was born in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, and grew up in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. 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 and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

, accepted a new job at the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...

and the family relocated to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. Sullivan initially studied for a career as a

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet) or veterinary surgeon 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, veterinarians also play a role in animal r ...

, 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 In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...

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, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, 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 a Canadian video game developer and publisher founded in 2006 and headquartered in Vancouver, with offices in Montreal, San Francisco, and Austin, Texas. The company develops and publishes massively multipl ...

before joining

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

Monsters University ''Monsters University'' is a 2013 American animated Coming-of-age film, coming-of-age comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. A prequel to ''Monsters, Inc.'' (2001), it was directed by Dan Scanlon (in his fea ...

'' (2013), ''

The Good Dinosaur ''The Good Dinosaur'' is a 2015 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream, from a screenplay written by Meg Le ...

'' (2015), ''

Piper A piper is a musician, a player of the bagpipe. As a noun proper, Piper may also refer to: People * Piper (given name) * Piper (surname) Arts and entertainment Fictional characters Comics * Piper (Morlock), in the Marvel Universe * P ...

'' (2016), and ''

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

'' (2018). 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 Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shi ...

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 o ...

'' series. In April 2019, Sullivan 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 ima ...

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

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

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 Sullivan began developing a feature film for Pixar.

Filmography

Short films

Feature films

Sources:

Accolades

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 animated film directors Women animated film directors Film directors from South Carolina 21st-century 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