Pete Oswald (born July 8, 1980) is an illustrator and production designer, best known for The Angry Birds Movie film series and ParaNorman. He is also known for his work as a children's book author and illustrator, and painter. Pete's work includes the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Good Egg, and the #2 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Bad Seed, both part of the Food Group series written by Jory John.
Early life and education Oswald was raised in Bountiful, Utah. His mother, also an artist, encouraged him to begin painting and drawing from an early age. He attended Judge Memorial High School, where he played baseball and basketball, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
After graduating high school in 1999, he relocated to Los Angeles where he enrolled in Loyola Marymount University and earned a degree in animation arts. He then began working in Los Angeles in film and television animation.
He cites his artistic influences as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt, Miroslav Šašek, Charles and Ray Eames, Mary Blair, Ronald Searle, and Al Hirschfeld.
Career Oswald is the illustrator of all books in Jory John's The Food Group series, including The Bad Seed, The Good Egg, The Cool Bean, The Couch Potato, The Smart Cookie, The Sour Grape, and The Big Cheese. The Bad Seed was described by The New York Times as "kid-book humor at its best, both warmhearted and frisky — the kind that leaves adults, too, cracking up and grateful." The bestselling duo also created That’s What Dinosaurs Do together. Oswald's authorial debut, Hike, was shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. He released his next book The Noise Inside Boys: A Story About Big Feelings in 2023, inspired by his own experiences raising his three sons. Oswald also co-created the children's book Mingo the Flamingo.
Oswald has served in production design and the art department on multiple animated family studio films and television shows. He is best known for his work on the 2016 film The Angry Birds Movie, for which he transformed the characters, lighting, and set design from the popular mobile game into an animated feature film series over the course of four years. He was noted for his work on The Angry Birds Movie in Vice's The Creator's Project, which stated: "Pete Oswald's fingerprints are all over the cutting edge of animated feature films, marked by a bright, colorful, slightly angular style." In 2016, he appeared at Comic-Con in San Diego, California. In 2019, Oswald returned to the franchise as production designer on The Angry Birds Movie 2. He also served as production designer on 2024's The Garfield Movie. Oswald spent over four years on the project, taking inspiration from Jim Davis' Garfield comic strips of the 1980s in creating new CG versions of Davis' iconic characters.
Oswald served as a visual artist on the popular animated films Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, ParaNorman, Hotel Transylvania, and The Lego Ninjago Movie.
He also paints with acrylics, in addition to his animation and illustration work, and debuted his painting series Pacific Abstract, inspired by the California coast, at a pop-up art gallery show at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, California, in 2016.
Filmography
Film YearTitlePositionNote(s)2008Madagascar: Escape 2 AfricaCharacter designer2009The Story of WallsDirector, production designerNominated: Annie Award for "Best Animated Short" (2009)Cloudy with a Chance of MeatballsVisual Development Artist2012ParaNormanConcept artistNominated: Annie Award for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production (2013)Hotel TransylvaniaCharacter designer2013Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2Visual development artist, designer2015The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age Smackdown!Background painter2016The Angry Birds MovieArt director, production designer2019The Angry Birds Movie 2Production designer2024The Garfield MovieProduction designer
Television YearTitlePositionNote(s)2004Johnny BravoProduction assistantEpisode: "It's a Magical Life/The Hunk at the End of This Cartoon"2004-07Foster's Home for Imaginary FriendsCharacter designer, animation processor, character layout artist, special poses28 episodes2010DoubtsourcingProduction designerTV mini-series Episode: "The Wall"Nominated: Annie Award for Production Design in an Animated Television Production (2011)The Ricky Gervais ShowAdditional background artist, character designer, background designer7 episodes2011The Looney Tunes ShowBackground painterEpisode: "The Float"
Book illustrations
Attack of the Underwear Dragon (2020) and Return of the Underwear Dragon (2021)
Awards and nominations
| 2009 | The Story of Walls | Annie Award for Best Animated Short
| 2011 | Doubtsourcing | Annie Award for Production Design in an Animated Television Production
| 2013 | ParaNorman | Annie Award for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
References
External links