Raul Aguirre Jr. may have been born in East L.A. But he grew up on the mean streets of Hacienda Heights California. The driving force for his entire life is an unwavering Ahab-like passion for art and story. After high school, Raul entered the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at the Art institute of Southern California (Recently renamed to The Laguna College of Art and Design) where he received 2 years worth of a solid art foundation. At the same time he was studying animation at the virtually unknown and now defunct Rowland Animation.

Raul was recruited by Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1994 . For years Raul honed his craft, and learned everything about the animation process he could from the artistic geniuses that surrounded him. Raul worked on such features as, Pocahontas, Tarzan, and Treasure Planet, spending over two years as Glen Keane’s protégé and the last Disney Animator Trained by Glen in Disney Traditional 2D Feature Animation.

In 2003 Raul created Studio Aguirre in South Gate California to develop his own projects and produce freelance animation. He has well over a dozen unique and stylish, High-Concept properties ranging fromPreschool to Prime Time content. With Raul’s creativity, determination, and problem solving skills, Studio Aguirre is proving to be a dynamic creative force on the verge of blowing up.

Frederator and Nickelodeon green lit Raul to produce his own creation Hero Heights for the Random Cartoons show in 2005 . Raul was credited as Creator, Co-Executive Producer, Director, Writer,Storyboard artist, Voice Director, and even provided a voice himself. Recently Raul did a season of storyboards for Fox TV’s Family Guy. Currently Raul is doing a lot of painting, freelance animation, storyboards, character design, portrait commissions, development of feature and TV Intellectual Properties as well as writing Pitch materials, screenplays and short stories.

To catch up with Raul and all his projects visit his site here.