Josie Trinidad

Josie Trinidad
Born	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.) California Institute of the Arts (BFA)
Occupations	Storyboard artist director voice actor
Employer	Walt Disney Animation Studios (2004–present)
Children	1

Josie Trinidad is an American storyboard artist and director best known for her work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. She joined Disney in 2004, and worked on The Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), and Wreck-It Ralph (2012). She served as the co-head of the story of the Academy Award-winning film Zootopia (2016), and was the head of story on Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). She made her directorial debut with the spin-off series Zootopia+.

Early life

Josie Trinidad was born to Filipino immigrant parents in Los Angeles, California. Her father, a doctor, was born in Laguna, while her mother hailed from Ilocos Norte and worked as a nurse. During her early years, she frequently stayed in contact with her Filipino relatives. She explained, "I come home a lot. I still have couple of aunts in Mandaluyong, in San Juan and in Las Piñas. We are a very close family and we see each other often."

At eleven years old, Trinidad watched Robin Hood (1973) on videocassette, and repeatedly paused the film so she could examine it frame by frame. "I realized, 'Oh my, those are drawings,'" she recalled. "'They're beautiful, hand-drawn images, and someone is behind that!' I was 11 years old and knew at that moment I wanted to be an animator." However, she admitted she grew up in a family that perceived art as more of a hobby than a viable career. Trinidad nevertheless stated: "What I did was I worked really hard and I made sure that I tried. At least I could say I tried to make it into animation. If it worked, great. If it didn't work, then maybe I was meant to do something else. But I never gave up."

A graduate of Adolfo Camarillo High School, Trinidad attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), majoring in English literature and fine arts, and studied character animation at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). After graduating, she worked as an illustrator for the toy company MGA Entertainment, as well as Klasky Csupo on animated commercials.

Career

In 2004, Trinidad was hired by Walt Disney Animation Studios as a story apprentice. She was enrolled in a six-month training program where she was given storyboard tests that story artist mentors assigned. There, she was the only person of Asian descent in the apprentice program. After six months had passed, she stated, "They decided where you were going to go, if they were going to keep you or not. And they decided to put me on a film." Her first film project was the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog. During production, Trinidad remembered: "I was the only female story artist with the 12 men in that room." However, her experience with the film's directors Ron Clements and John Musker was pleasant, stating: "They threw me in the deep end ... They were really great." She next worked on Tangled (2010) and Wreck-It Ralph (2012).

In Zootopia, Trinidad was appointed as the film's co-head of the story. In that position, she held pitch meetings with a team of 12 to 15 story artists, and hosted a smaller group during editorial meetings. After reading an early draft of the script, Trinidad connected the main character Judy Hopps, finding a kinship with the character's urban relocation when she was a college student. For visual research, the filmmakers sent Trinidad to the Philippines to gather inspiration for the film. There, she visited the De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde and the animation studio Toon City in Manila. By this point, Trinidad had stated the story team had become more racially diverse, with nearly half of the team being female. Zootopia was awarded the 2017 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Trinidad was tapped as the film's head of story for the 2018 sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet. In an interview, she stated, "We wanted the world of the Internet to feel authentic, like how we all use it today, but to mix it up with our own kind of fun, which were websites [...] The trick is getting something familiar then turning it in something never seen before. The biggest challenge though, was trying to hone that big idea down." Despite this, she has reflected the overall story process for an animated film is "not very glamorous," but nevertheless is very collaborative.

In December 2020, it was announced that a spin-off series titled Zootopia+ was in development for streaming on Disney+. Jeff Correy had pitched the series as one of three pitches for potential Disney+ series. Trinidad, who had served as a story artist on the 2016 film, was originally set to direct only two episodes for the series. However, her excitement led to her co-directing the entire series alongside Correy. The series began streaming on November 9, 2022.

Personal life

Trinidad lives in Los Angeles with her son.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Writer	Story Supervisor	Story Artist	Voice role	Notes
2009	The Princess and the Frog	No	No	Yes	No
2010	Tangled	No	No	Yes	No
2012	Wreck-It Ralph	No	No	Yes	Yes	Jubileena Bing Bing
2014	Big Hero 6	No	No	Yes	Yes	Additional voices
2016	Zootopia	Story by	Co-head of story	Yes	Yes	Landlady
2018	Ralph Breaks the Internet	Story by	Yes	Yes	Yes	Additional voices
2021	Raya and the Last Dragon	No	No	Additional	No

Shorts

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Story Artist	Notes
2007	How to Hook Up Your Home Theater	No	Additional story	Yes
2011	The Ballad of Nessie	No	Story by	Yes

Television series

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Notes
2022	Zootopia+	Yes	Story by	6 episodes

External links

• Josie Trinidad at IMDb
• Instagram account