Biography

Michael O'Brien joined Pixar Animation Studios in February 2000 as a member of the Tools department. The first feature film he worked on was "Monsters, Inc." and from there he went on to work in the production department for the Academy Award®-winning "Finding Nemo," and returned to the Tools department on "The Incredibles," "WALL.E" and "Up" where he helped implement and support the effects pipeline. O'Brien came back into production to work as part of the Effects team for Golden Globe®-winner "Cars," and as the technical effects lead for Academy Award®-winning "Brave," for which he won a Visual Effects Society (VES) award for "Outstanding Effects in an Animated Film." In addition to his work on feature films, O'Brien has lent his effects talents to the short films "BURN.E" and "Tokyo Mater." He served as the Effect Supervisor on short film "The Blue Umbrella," and as the Technical Effects Lead on Pixar 2015 short "LAVA," which opened theatrically in front of "Inside Out." O'Brien continued on as the technical effect lead on "The Good Dinosaur," for which he won an Annie Award for "Outstanding Animated Effects in an Animated Production." He was the effects supervisor on Disney.Pixar's "Coco".

Prior to joining Pixar, O'Brien worked as a software developer at Alias/Wavefront working on Maya. Before that, he worked at SGI as a software developer while getting his degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from Santa Clara University. He currently lives in the Bay Area with his wife and their four children.
- IMDb mini biography by: Michael O'Brien