BIO

Roberto Antonio Gómez Nájera is a visual artist living in Pasadena, California. Born and raised in México City, México, he was drawing and making movies since his early years while on a steady diet of Mickey Mouse, Top Cat and He-Man cartoons.

Roberto is the recipient of the 2019 Staff Recognition Award and currently holds the main creative position as Multimedia Art Director, both at the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts. He created the new branding for the 2006 renaming of the School and has been in charge since of the graphic identity, print media, collateral materials, photography as well as special projects for major donors like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and Hugh Hefner, among others. For his work as a designer he has four international Premier Print Awards by the Printing Industries of America, Inc.

In 2001 Roberto received a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts. During his time at USC, he worked under the mentoring of internationally renowned artists Ishu Patel and Kathy Smith, as well as animation journeyman Tom Sito. His years at USC were possible through the prestigious Fulbright-Garcia Robles, Hollywood Foreign Press and Rodolfo Montes scholarships. Before graduating from USC, Roberto completed an internship at the Walt Disney Studios Feature Animation’s Development Department. His student film La Leyenda about Aztec mythology was selected to screen in Brazil’s AnimaMundi Animation Festival.

Prior to living in California, he worked for TV Azteca television network in Mexico under the guidance of British communication expert Reginald Clifford; traveling around the country as head of a qualitative research team of 22 people, conducting media and social investigations for news, scripted programming and “telenovelas”. This experience allowed Roberto to meet, learn and understand first hand from audiences how they think, feel and perceive different types of storytelling.

Roberto graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Estado de México (or “Tec”) with a degree in Communications Sciences. In Mexico this degree relates to producing film, television, print and digital media, as well as radio production. Roberto created the first animated final-project short film at the University.

Before college, Roberto worked as cast member of the Mexican pavilion at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center in Orlando, Florida. During this time he completed a “Ducktorate Degree” in Studio Production from the Disney University (His degree is signed by Donald Duck, the REAL Donald Duck.)

Previously, Roberto was busy saving the world in the Model United Nations at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, with his high school classmates from Mexico.

Roberto grew up in a household were his creativity was always encouraged. From drawing on every surface and material, to moving furniture and creating elaborate film sets with his sisters, neighbors and cousins for days at a time, to burning the ping pong table in the name of good special effects. He was given his first 8mm projector at the age of four, his first RICOH instant camera at ten, and his first Betacam at fourteen.

Roberto fell in love with movie-making at the age of four after drawing with permanent markers on his family’s portable movie screen.