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Adrian Molina (born August 23, 1985) is an American animator, storyboard artist and screenwriter who works for Pixar. He co-wrote the screenplay and story of Coco (2017), which he also co-directed.
Adrian Molina | |
|---|---|
 Molina at the 2017 Annecy International Animated Film Festival | |
| Born | August 23, 1985 Yuba City, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | California Institute of the Arts |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Employer | Pixar Animation Studios (2007–present) |
| Spouse |
Ryan Dooley (m. 2011) |
Molina was born in Yuba City, California to a Mexican family, and raised in Grass Valley. He graduated from Bear River High School in 2003, to subsequently attend and graduate from the California Institute of the Arts in 2007.[1]
Molina joined Pixar in 2007. He started as a 2D animator on Ratatouille. He later moved on to be a storyboard artist, working on Toy Story 3 and Monsters University.[1] Molina also illustrated the Little Golden Book for Toy Story 3.[2] After writing for The Good Dinosaur, Molina started his first assignment as a screenwriter, for Coco, and later went on to co-direct the film. He also wrote several lyrics for the film.[1][3][4]
Following the success of Coco and the D23 Expo announcement in September 2022, Molina was announced to direct the upcoming feature film Elio, set to release on June 13, 2025.[5][6][7] However in August 2024, it was announced that Molina had left Elio to work on another original film with Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian directing instead.[8] Nevertheless, he is reportedly retaining his director credit because of the amount of work he directed that is being kept in the film.[9]
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Molina is gay. He has been married to Ryan Dooley since 2011.[10]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer |
Story Artist |
Other | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Ratatouille | No | No | No | No | Yes | Animator: End Titles |
| 2010 | Toy Story 3 | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
| 2013 | Monsters University | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Additional Screenplay Material Opening Title Designer and Director |
| 2015 | The Good Dinosaur | No | No | No | No | Yes | Additional Screenplay Material |
| 2017 | Coco | Co-Director | Yes | No | No | Yes | Additional Voices, Songwriter |
| 2019 | Toy Story 4 | No | No | No | No | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team |
| 2020 | Onward | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Soul | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| 2021 | Luca | No | No | No | No | Yes | Additional Story Contributor Pixar Senior Creative Team |
| 2022 | Turning Red | No | No | Associate | No | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team |
| Lightyear | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| 2023 | Elemental | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| 2024 | Inside Out 2 | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| 2025 | Elio | Yes | TBA | No | No | Yes |
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| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Film | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | March 4, 2018 | Best Animated Feature | Coco | Won | [11] |
| Annie Awards | February 3, 2018 | Directing in an Animated Feature Production | Coco | Won | [12] |
| Music in an Animated Feature Production | Coco | Won | |||
| Writing in an Animated Feature Production | Coco | Won | |||
| Humanitas Prize | February 16, 2018 | Feature – Family | Coco | Nominated | [13] |
| Imagen Awards | August 25, 2018 | Best Director | Coco | Won | [14] |
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