Birthdate: Jul 14, 1994
Birthplace: Valencia, California
Kenna Harris (birthname: McKenna Harris) has been a rising talent inside the culture of Pixar Animation Studios, graduating to the level of the Pixar Senior Creative Team. Harris’s first Pixar work was as a character story artist on Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Frozen 2 (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) and Luca (2021), and then took an executive producer on Disney-Pixar’s Elemental (2023).
Harris stepped up inside Pixar’s creative organization to the position of story supervisor of director/co-story writer Kelsey Mann’s acclaimed and highly profitable sequel, Inside Out 2 (2024), co-written by Meg LeFauve (who was also co-story writer) and Dave Holstein, starring the voices of Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Black, Ayo Edebiri, Adele Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan and Paul Walter Hauser, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and grossing an enormous $1.7 billion (an astounding eight times estimated costs) for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Harris was then elevated to the Pixar Senior Creative Team overseeing the productions of Disney-Pixar’s Elio (2025) and Hoppers (2026).
Kenna Harris made her debut as a co-director/co-screenwriter with the Disney-Pixar sequel, Toy Story 5 (2026), directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, with a voice cast reunion for Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Tony Hale and John Ratzenberger, with new cast members Greta Lee, Conan O’Brien, Craig Robinson, Shelby Rabara, Bad Bunny, Ernie Hudson and Alan Cumming, and released wide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Kenna Harris was born and raised in Valencia, California, by their parents. sister brother. Harris studied character design in the animation school of the California Institute of the Arts, from which they graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Harris identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns “they/them.”
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Hometown Artist: Kenna Harris is a rare CalArts animation graduate born in the city where the renowned arts university is located: Valencia, California, a suburb north of Los Angeles.
Mentor Wisdom: Harris has commented that her CalArts character design teacher Joe Pitt encouraged them and their fellow students “how important it is to take the time to draw and write and create for yourself if you want to stay sane in the (animated film and TV) industry…Once I started working and it actually became applicable to my life, I finally saw the truth in what he’d said… It’s OK just to be drawing for you, not for your boss, not to improve—just for you.”
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