Enrico Casarosa

Enrico Casarosa (born 20 November 1971)^[2][3] 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.^[4]

Enrico Casarosa
Casarosa in 2014
Born	(1971-11-20) 20 November 1971 (age 53) Genoa, Liguria, Italy
Alma mater	School of Visual Arts Fashion Institute of Technology
Occupations	Film director screenwriter storyboard artist
Years active	1996–present
Employers	Blue Sky Studios (2002–2005) Pixar Animation Studios (2002–present)
Spouse	Marit Casarosa[1]
Children	1

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.^[5] 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.^[6] In late 2004, Casarosa started a drawing marathon community called SketchCrawl and has been organizing the event ever since.^[7] In 2011, his short film La Luna premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France,^[8] and was released theatrically with Pixar's Brave in 2012.^[4]

Cararosa then worked as head of story on The Good Dinosaur when Bob Peterson was the original director, and later as a story artist on Coco.^[9][10]

In 2021, Casarosa made his feature directorial debut with Luca, which was released on Disney+ in the United States.^[11][12][13] The film received generally positive reviews from critics for its nostalgic feel and acting. The film won a Hollywood Critics Association award for Best Picture. It was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 79th Golden Globe Awards and the 94th Academy Awards.

In October 2022, Cararosa stated he was developing another original Pixar feature film.^[14][15] In June 2025, the film was titled Gatto, with the story centered on a black cat named Nero living in Venice who questions whether he's lived the right lives. It is scheduled for release on 18 June 2027.^[16][17]

Personal life

Casarosa currently resides in San Francisco with his wife Marit and daughter Fio.^[1]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Director	Story	Story Artist	Other	Voice Role	Notes
2002	Ice Age	No	No	Yes	No
2005	Robots	No	No	Uncredited	No		[5]
2006	Cars	No	No	Uncredited	No		[18]
2007	Ratatouille	No	No	Yes	No
2009	Up	No	No	Yes	No
2011	Cars 2	No	No	Yes	No
2015	The Good Dinosaur	No	No	No	Yes		Additional Story Supervision
2017	Coco	No	No	Yes	Yes		Pixar Senior Creative Team [15]
2018	Incredibles 2	No	No	No	Yes
2019	Toy Story 4	No	No	No	Yes
2020	Onward	No	No	No	Yes
	Soul	No	No	No	Yes
2021	Luca	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Card Player / Angry Fisherman
2022	Turning Red	No	No	No	Yes
	Lightyear	No	No	No	Yes
2023	Elemental	No	No	No	Yes
2024	Inside Out 2	No	No	No	Yes
2025	Elio	No	No	No	Yes
2026	Toy Story 5	No	No	No	Yes
2027	Gatto[16]	Yes	TBA	No	Yes

Shorts

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Story Artist	Executive Producer
2011	La Luna	Yes	Yes	No	No
2016	Piper	No	No	Yes	No
2021	Ciao Alberto	No	No	No	Yes

Featurettes and TV

Year	Title	Role
1996	Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders	13 episodes Background design, storyboard revision
1997	The Secret of Anastasia	Direct-to-video Lead character model designer, background layout designer
	The Amazing Feats of Young Hercules
1997–1998	101 Dalmatians: The Series	23 episodes Storyboard artist, storyboard revision artist, designer
1998–2000	PB&J Otter	18 episodes Background artist, storyboard artist

Bibliography

• The Adventures of Mia, Volume One (2001) graphic novel
• Fragments (2001) art book with Ronnie Del Carmen
• 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 Ronnie Del Carmen and Tadahiro Uesugi
• Totoro Forest Project (2008) with Daisuke Tsutsumi, Ronnie Del Carmen, 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 Luca

Awards and nominations

Association	Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref(s)
Academy Awards	2012	Best Animated Short Film	La Luna	Nominated	[19]
	2022	Best Animated Feature	Luca	Nominated	[20]
Annie Awards	2016	Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in a Feature Production	The Good Dinosaur	Nominated	[21]
	2022	Outstanding Achievement for Directing in a Feature Production	Luca	Nominated	[22]
British Academy Film Awards	2022	Best Animated Film	Luca	Nominated	[23]
Children's and Family Emmy Awards	2022	Outstanding Short Form Program	Ciao Alberto	Nominated	[24]
Golden Globe Awards	2022	Best Animated Feature Film	Luca	Nominated	[25]

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.^[26] 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.^[27]