Born: Anthony DeRosa
Birthday: January 1, 1959
Location: Brooklyn, NY, U.S.
Alma mater: California Institute of the Arts
Occupation: Animator, Storyboard
Years active: 1981–present
Tony DeRosa entered Calarts’ character animation program in 1978 and was a classmate of Mark Henn. After graduation, he participated in his first professional project as a character designer and storyboard artist for a video short called Hoomania.
Tony was first hired at Disney as a breakdown artist on “The Black Cauldron” in 1985, and trained under animator Eric Larson. After assisting on several projects he completed his first animation on “The Great Mouse Detective,” followed by “Oliver and Company” and then “The Little Mermaid.”
DeRosa’s first supervising animator role was for the character of Bernard on “The Rescuers Down Under.” He also supervised the male leads of Beast for “Beauty and the Beast” and Aladdin on “Aladdin.” Tony would go on to provide supervising animation for Nakoma on “Pocahontas,” both Zeus and Hera from “Hercules,” and Moliere in “Atlantis: The Lost Empire.” His animation is also seen in “Treasure Planet” and “Home on the Range.”
He left Disney for a time to supervise animation on “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” and “Fat Albert: The Movie.” He was the lead animator for the titular George in “Curious George” and provided animation for “The Simpsons Movie.”
DeRosa worked on many additional smaller and independent animation projects before his returned to Walt Disney Animation Studios in his familiar role of supervising animator to animate Lawrence from “The Princess and the Frog” and Piglet, Kanga, and Roo from “Winnie the Pooh.” He also lent his efforts to “Shademaker,” “Paperman,” “Get A Horse,” “Zootopia,” “Moana,” “Wreck it Ralph 2,” and “Frozen2.”
Tony was an Annie Award nominee for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Character Animation in 2004.
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