Tell us a little about yourself and your career.
I graduated from the Character Animation Program at CalArts, where I fell in love with storytelling and filmmaking. I have been working in the animation industry for more than 15 years, and my focus has been primarily as a Story Artist, although I also love exploring characters and the stories behind them through their portrayal in character design. I worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a Story Artist for several years, where I had the opportunity to work on many incredible films, as well as direct my own short, Inner Workings. I’ve also been involved with development, story, and character design work for several other studios such as DreamWorks Animation, Sony Animation, Paramount/Nickelodeon, Illumination, and Netflix. Currently, I am focusing mainly on directing and am developing a few projects that I am very passionate about.
What challenges have you faced in navigating a career in animation?
One of the biggest challenges was finding the confidence in my own voice. For a long time, I would try to just emulate the work of other artists I admired. There are incredibly talented artists everywhere in Hollywood, and the industry is saturated. As a result, the animation industry can be competitive, and it can bring fear and a lack of belief in our own skills and capability. That fear eventually led my art to look stale and empty. I then started to look inwards and pay more attention to my own voice and finding the value I have to contribute from my own personal stories, culture, ideas, and perspective. This helped me to find more authenticity and originality in my work. And in turn, helped me tremendously to navigate this industry and find the confidence I lacked.
Who are your inspirations in the field of animation?
There are so many artists who inspired me throughout my journey that it is hard to mention all of them, and I am deeply appreciative for every single one. In one way or another, they each are responsible for a different artistic facet of me, and without them I wouldn’t exist as the artist I am today. I was able to shape myself by learning and observing their work, starting from my peers at CalArts. I learned so much from my peers, and it is mind-blowing to have seen them start from a raw place and become mature. Through their tremendous efforts and commitment, their work majestically blossomed, and suddenly they became leaders and pioneers in the medium. This is so inspiring to see.
A few specific artists who heavily inspired me are Ronald Searle, Jean-Jacques Sempé, Chuck Jones, Ralph Steadman, Jack Davis, Miroslav Šašek, Lou Romano, and Ralph Eggleston. As far as filmmakers, I love Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa, John Hughes, Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and the Coen brothers, to name a few. I am a huge fan of the films The Big Lebowski and Raising Arizona. These are the kind of films you can watch over and over and never get tired of them. The characters are dimensional, faceted, nuanced, hilarious, and you just want to hang out with these guys.
What do you hope to accomplish as an artist in the animation industry?
I would like to tell stories that represent my culture, my upbringing as a Japanese-Brazilian, and that depict my own individuality and voice as an immigrant here in the U.S. I want to keep the challenge of finding inspiration from the life I lived and somehow take this raw material and turn it into gold. This is always the most difficult task but so gratifying at the end because the greatest and most original stories come from it.
What does being in the Union mean to you?
The Union means having a community that will have your back and not let powerful institutions or corporations take advantage of the talent, dedication, honesty, and honor of artists. It is having a strong and united group of peers that will always protect you in challenging times.
See more of Leo’s art on his website.
Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
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