Danielle Feinberg

Last updated
Danielle Feinberg
Born
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupations
  • visual effects supervisor
  • cinematographer
  • computer scientist
Years active1997-present
Employer Pixar Animation Studios (1997-present)
Notable work WALL-E (2008)
Brave (2012)
Coco (2017)
Turning Red (2022)
Board member of Harvard Board of Overseers

Danielle Feinberg is an American Visual effects supervisor, cinematographer and Director of Photography for Lighting at Pixar Animation Studios. She directed lighting for the Academy Award-winning films WALL-E , Brave and Coco and was the Visual effects supervisor for Turning Red.

Contents

Life and career

Danielle Feinberg was born in Boulder, Colorado and graduated from Boulder High School. Growing up, she attended summer camps and after-school programs for students interested in computer programming and engineering. [1] She attended Harvard University, where she was introduced to computer animation in a computer graphics course during her junior year. [2] She graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in computer science.

After graduating from Harvard, she started working at Pixar in February 1997 as a technician managing the large libraries of data and images for rendering A Bug's Life . [1] She has since been credited for leading work in visual effects, technical direction, and graphics. [3]

Outside of Pixar, she mentors girls to help them find inspiration in STEM through groups like Girls Who Code. She gives talks in the United States and abroad, using them when she can as a platform to encourage girls to pursue STEM fields. [4] In fact, Made with Code, which is an initiative launched by Google, was kick started with her inspiring keynote. [5]

In 2015, she appeared in the documentary Code: Debugging the Gender Gap . In November 2015, she delivered a talk on science and art at TED Talks Live in New York at the historic Town Hall Theater. It was also streamed by PBS. [6] In 2022, she was featured along with Domee Shi, Lindsey Collins and Rona Liu as the leading women of Turning Red in the documentary Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red.

She was elected to a six-year term on the Harvard Board of Overseers in 2024. [7]

Filmography

Feature films

YearTitleRoleNotes
1998 A Bug's Life lead render technical director
1999 Toy Story 2 master lighting artist
2001 Monsters, Inc. master lighting artist
2003 Finding Nemo computer graphics supervisorlead development on ocean graphics unit [8]
2004 The Incredibles lead lighting artist
2007 Ratatouille master lighting artist
2008 WALL-E director of photography for lighting
2012 Brave director of photography lighting
2015 Inside Out master lighting artist
The Good Dinosaur master lighting artist
2017 Coco director of photography for lighting
2022 Turning Red visual effects supervisor
2024 Inside Out 2 lighting artist

Short films

YearTitleRoleNotes
2003 Exploring the Reef technical supervisorshort documentary film distributed with Finding Nemo
2006 Lifted lighting artistInitial theatrical release with Ratatouille
2008 BURN-E lighting consultant
2009 Partly Cloudy lightingInitial theatrical release with UP
2020 SparkShorts - Loop supervising technical director
2023Petedirectory of photography for lightingIndependent short film, directed by Bret Parker

Awards

YearMovieAwardNotes
2011 Marie Claire Magazine Women on TopRecognized as the top "Film Techie"
201315th Assembly District Women of the YearIssued by Assemblymember Nancy Skinner for Feinberg's work with girls in STEM
2015NCCWSL Woman of DistinctionAwarded by the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders
2018 Coco Won Annie award Outstanding achievement for product design in an animated feature production. [9]
2018 Girls in Tech Creator of the YearAwarded by Girls in Tech
2022 San Francisco Business Times OUTstanding VoicesAwarded by San Francisco Business Times for Leaders paving the way for LGBTQ equality in the workplace
2022Breaker of the Glass CeilingAwarded by the Women of Siggraph Conversations

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Suechting, Max (July–August 2015). "Action, Camera, Lights: Putting the finishing touches on animated worlds". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  2. "Q&A with Danielle Feinberg". Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  3. "IMDb Danielle Feinberg". IMDb . Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  4. "Danielle Feinberg on getting women in STEM". YouTube . Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  5. "Made with code kicks off with Danielle Feinberg". YouTube . Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  6. "Danielle Feinberg at TED Talks Live". 6 April 2016. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  7. University, Harvard. "Board of Overseers". Harvard University. Retrieved 2025-11-14.
  8. "TED Talk: The magic ingredient that brings Pixar movies to life". 6 April 2016. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  9. "Nominees for Annie Award" . Retrieved December 10, 2017.