Enrico Casarosa

Enrico Casarosa (born 20 November 1971) is an Italian director, screenwriter and storyboard artist. Best known for his work at Pixar, he has directed the short film La Luna (2011) and the feature film Luca (2021), which both were nominated for Academy Awards.

Early life
Casarosa was born in Genoa, Italy, but moved to New York City in his twenties, to study animation at the School of Visual Arts and Illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Career
Casarosa began his professional career as a background designer and storyboard artist on several animated TV series, including 101 Dalmatians: The Series and PB&J Otter. Before joining Pixar, he worked as a storyboard artist at Blue Sky Studios on Ice Age and Robots.

In 2002, Casarosa joined Pixar, where he worked as a story artist on Cars, Ratatouille, Up and Cars 2. 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 in France, and was released theatrically with Pixar's Brave in 2012.

He then worked as head of story on The Good Dinosaur 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 Luca, released on Disney+ on 18 June 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 award for Best Picture.

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

Personal life
Casarosa currently resides in San Francisco with his wife Marit and daughter Fio.

Special projects
In 2008, Enrico Casarosa (along with Ronnie del Carmen, Daisuke Tsutsumi 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, Charles Vess, Iain McCaig and William Joyce among others.