Josh Cooley

Not to be confused with Joshua Colley or Josh Coley.

Joshua Cooley (born May 23, 1979) is an American filmmaker and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing the animated films Toy Story 4 (2019) and Transformers One (2024), with the former winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Inside Out (2015), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Josh Cooley
Cooley in 2024
Born	(1979-05-23) May 23, 1979 (age 45)[1] Berkeley, California, U.S.
Occupations	Film director screenwriter storyboard artist voice actor
Years active	2003–present
Employers	Pixar Animation Studios (2003–2020) Paramount Animation (2020–present)
Awards	Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Toy Story 4 (2019)

Career

Cooley was recruited by Joe Ranft at Pixar, where he started his career as an intern,^[2][3] mostly working as a storyboard artist on films including The Incredibles (2004), the first two films of the Cars franchise (2006-2011), Ratatouille (2007), and Up (2009).^[4] In 2009, Cooley wrote and directed a short film George & A.J. for Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures.^[4]

In 2015, Cooley worked as a screenwriter and storyboard supervisor on the film Inside Out, which was released to critical acclaim. Cooley received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for his work on the film, alongside Pete Docter (the film's director), Ronnie Del Carmen (co-director), and Meg LeFauve.^[5] The same year, he wrote and directed another short film titled Riley's First Date?.^[6][5]

Following the success of Inside Out, Cooley was tapped by John Lasseter and screenwriter Andrew Stanton to co-direct Toy Story 4. Lasseter ended up setting aside his directorial duties in 2016,^[7] making Cooley the sole director. Toy Story 4 was Cooley's directorial debut. Upon release, the film received critical acclaim, and Cooley took home his first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.^[8] Cooley left Pixar in March 2020.^[9]

In 2024, Cooley directed the animated Transformers film, titled Transformers One, for Paramount Pictures.^[10] The film is set on the Transformers home planet of Cybertron and focuses on the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron.^[10]

On May 19, 2020, it was reported that Cooley will write and direct a live-action adaptation of the children's book Malamander by Thomas Taylor for Sony Pictures,^[9] marking his first live-action film. In addition, on July 10, 2020, it was announced that Cooley would be the writer and director of the film Little Monsters, starring Universal Monsters characters, for Universal Pictures.^[11] On June 23, 2021, Cooley was set to write a film based on the Disney Parks attraction Tower of Terror, with Scarlett Johansson starring and producing the project, after previously working together on Transformers One.^[12]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Story Supervisor	Story Artist	Other	Voice Role	Notes
2004	The Incredibles	No	No	No	Uncredited	No		[4]
2006	Cars	No	No	No	Additional	No
2007	Ratatouille	No	No	No	Yes	No
2009	Up	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Omega
2011	Cars 2	No	No	Additional	No	No
2015	Inside Out	No	Screenplay	Yes	No	Yes	Jangles
2019	Toy Story 4	Yes	Original Story	No	No	Yes		Additional Screenplay Material Pixar Senior Creative Team
2020	We Bare Bears: The Movie	No	No	No	No	Yes	Painting Elephant	Additional Voices
	Soul	No	No	No	No	Yes		Additional Dialogue Contributions Pixar Senior Creative Team
2024	Transformers One	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Control Room Guys / PA System / Skywarp	[10]
TBA	Malamander	Yes	Yes	No	No	No		[9]
	Little Monsters	Yes	Yes	No	No	No		[11]
	Tower of Terror	No	Yes	No	No	No		[13]

Shorts

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Story Artist	Editor	Other	Voice Role	Notes
2005	Mindwalk	No	No	No	Film	No
2009	Calendar Confloption	No	No	Yes	No	No		[14]
	George and A.J.	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
2010	Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales	No	No	No	No	Yes	Additional Voices	Episodes 8-9
2011	Toy Story Toons: Small Fry	No	No	No	Story	Yes	Cashier / Lizard Wizard
2013	Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs	No	No	No	No	Yes	Bug / Additional Voices	Episodes 1-3
	Toy Story of Terror!	No	No	No	No	Yes	Officer Phillips	TV special
2015	Riley's First Date?	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Dad's Sadness
2021	22 vs. Earth	No	Yes	No	No	No		Disney+ Original Short Film

Other credits

Year	Title	Role
2009	Tracy	Cameraman #2, Extras, Camera Operator, Artist
2015	The Good Dinosaur	Special Thanks
2017	Coco	Pixar Senior Creative Team
2018	Incredibles 2
2019-20	Forky Asks a Question	Special Thanks
2020	Lamp Life[15]
	Onward	Special Thanks, Pixar Senior Creative Team