Ronnie del Carmen

Ronnie del Carmen is a Filipino-American animation artist, storyboard specialist, comics creator, and director whose career links Manila’s animation industry with Pixar’s feature films. Born in Cavite City, Philippines, on December 31, 1959, he studied architecture at the University of Santo Tomas before choosing drawing and animation as his profession. His early Philippine work included illustration and animation; he later relocated to the United States in 1989.

In the American television-animation business, del Carmen worked on projects including Batman: The Animated Series. He joined Pixar Animation Studios in 2000, becoming one of the studio’s important story artists. Story work on Finding Nemo placed him on the 2003 film about a clownfish father crossing the ocean to recover his captured son. He also contributed story work to Ratatouille, Pixar’s Paris-set tale of Remy, a rat who wants to cook, and to Up. On Up, he was story supervisor for the 2009 adventure in which widower Carl Fredricksen flies his house with balloons toward South America.

Del Carmen received a story credit on Inside Out and served as its co-director alongside Pete Docter. The 2015 film locates its drama in the mind of Riley, where Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust struggle to guide her through a move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Inside Out won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and del Carmen was among its principal creative voices. His own experiences as an immigrant informed his connection to the story’s displacement and adjustment, a subject he has discussed publicly.

Beyond feature production, he is known for autobiographical and personal comics. His graphic novel Burn and his collection Paper Biscuit draw on memories of childhood and family life in the Philippines. These works make his background visible without treating it as decorative detail: Philippine places, food, relatives, Catholic imagery, and the practical pressures of migration recur in his storytelling.

At Pixar, he subsequently worked as a story artist on films including Brave and The Good Dinosaur, and he was a story artist on Soul. His professional reputation rests especially on the storyboard process: turning loose ideas into visual sequences that clarify character motivation, comic timing, and emotional movement. Del Carmen has also taught and spoken about drawing and story, sharing practical advice with artists through presentations and social media. His path from Cavite City to Pixar remains notable.