Michael Rianda is writing and directing Sony Pictures Animation’s The Mitchells vs. The Machines, a very personal project for him inspired by his own delightfully crazy family, and a childhood infatuation with robots. He attended California Institute of the Arts where he studied character animation from 2007-2010 and made the short films, Everybody Dies in 90 Seconds and Work. He has since been employed by Pixar and JibJab, taught at CalArts, and worked at Disney TV Animation where he served as a writer and creative director for the Annie Award-winning TV show Gravity Falls.