Introduction
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.
Early life and education
Molina was born in Yuba City, California to a Mexican family, and raised in Grass Valley, and he graduated from Bear River High School in 2003, to subsequently attend and graduate from the California Institute of the Arts in 2007.
Career
Molina has joined at Pixar since 2007, where 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. Molina also illustrated the Little Golden Book for Toy Story 3. 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.
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. However in August 2024, Molina left Elio to work on another original film with Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian directing instead. Nevertheless, he is reportedly retaining his director credit because of the amount of work he directed that is being kept in the film.
Personal life
Molina is gay. He has been married to Ryan Dooley since 2011.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | ExecutiveProducer | StoryArtist | 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 Contributions 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 | No | No | No | Yes |
Accolades
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Film | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | March 4, 2018 | Best Animated Feature | Coco | Won | |
| Annie Awards | February 3, 2018 | Directing in an Animated Feature Production | Coco | Won | |
| 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 | |
| Imagen Awards | August 25, 2018 | Best Director | Coco | Won |