BOBBY PODESTA (Animation Supervisor) joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997 as an animator on “A Bug’s Life,” and has been an animator and story artist on subsequent films including “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.” and the Academy Award®-winning features “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles.” On the Golden Globe®-winning feature “Cars,” Podesta served as directing animator and story artist, and he was supervising animator for the Academy Award-winning film “Toy Story 3.” Podesta also has a story credit on the series of “Cars” short films, “Mater’s Tall Tales,” as well as being the supervising animator on the Disneyland ride “Finding Nemo’s Submarine Voyage.”

Podesta briefly left the studio in 2011 to be the chief creative officer of a venture-backed Silicon Valley start-up, and to develop feature films with Japanese and Hollywood animation studios. He returned to Pixar as an animator on “Inside Out,” “The Good Dinosaur” and “Finding Dory,” as well as a storyboard artist on “Cars 3,” for which he was later promoted to supervising animator. He served as animation supervisor on Pixar’s upcoming feature film “Soul,” which is set to release Nov. 20, 2020.

Podesta joined the character animation program at California Institute of the Arts, interning during his summer breaks at various animation studios throughout Los Angeles. He won a student Emmy for his graduating short film and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in film. Podesta was hired at Pixar shortly thereafter.

In his spare time, Podesta is writing a novel for young adults. He lives in Oakland, Calif., with his wife, daughter, son, two cats and a pretty cute dog.