Domee Shi
Birthdate: August 19, 1989 (36 Years Old)
Birthplace: Chongqing, China
Domee Shi (birthname: Shi Zhiyu) has been a story artist, writer, and director with Disney/Pixar Studios since 2015, when she was a story artist on Inside Out (2015), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Incredibles 2 (2018,) and Toy Story 4 (2019). Shi progressed at Pixar when she joined their Senior Creative Team on the features Onward (2020), Soul (2020), and Luca (2021).
Shi was director/co-writer/co-story writer of Pixar’s first Asian-themed feature, the coming-of-age comedy-drama, Turning Red (2022), with Julia Cho as co-writer and co-story writer, and featuring the voice cast of Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse and James Hong, and which was released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in limited fashion during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and then released on Disney+, and nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award. Shi proceeded at Pixar to serve on the Senior Creative Team, overseeing the productions of Lightyear (2022), Elemental (2023), and Inside Out 2 (2024).
Domee Shi returned to the director’s chair as co-director (with Madeline Sharafian, replacing original director Adrian Molina) of Disney/Pixar’s sci-fi adventure, Elio (2025), starring the voices of Yonas Kibreab (in the title role), Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Jameela Jamil, Brad Garrett, Shirley Henderson, and Matthias Schweighöfer. Shi won the Best Animated Short Film for her Pixar Animation Studios-backed film, Bao (2018), a personal work about a Chinese Canadian mother experiencing empty nest syndrome and the first Pixar short directed by a woman, which screened in front of Pixar’s feature, Incredibles 2.
Personal life
Domee Shi was born in Chongqing, China, and raised in Chongqing and then in Newfoundland and Toronto, Canada, by her parents, who emigrated there when Shi was two years old. Shi learned art from her artist father, whom she cites as a primary influence. Shi was president of the anime club at her high school. Shi attended and graduated in 2011 from the Toronto-based Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, where she studied animation.
Domee Shi Movies
Director
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Previous (1)
- 2024 |
Turning Red
A thirteen-year-old girl named Mei Lee is torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and the changes of adolescence. And as if the challenges were not enough, whenever she gets overly excited Mei transforms into a giant red panda.
Writer
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Previous (1)
- 2024 |
Turning Red
A thirteen-year-old girl named Mei Lee is torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and the changes of adolescence. And as if the challenges were not enough, whenever she gets overly excited Mei transforms into a giant red panda.
Facts About Domee Shi
Favorite Asian Filmmakers: Domee Shi has cited her favorite Asian filmmakers as Isao Takahata, maker of My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) and the Studio Ghibli master, Hayao Miyazaki, as well as Rumiko Takahashi, Korean director/writer Bong Joon-ho, and Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee.
