Madeline Sharafian (born February 1, 1993) is an Armenian-American film director, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and animator. She is best known for her work at Pixar, including directing the short film Burrow (2020) and the feature film Elio (2025), both were nominated for the Academy Awards.
Early life Sharafian was born in Alameda, California, and is of Armenian descent. By 2013, she was enrolled in CalArts.
Career In 2013, Sharafian wrote and directed the short film Omelette. In 2014, she served as a storyboard artist, writer, and character designer on the Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears. In 2017, she storyboarded sequences for Coco and Dante's Lunch. In 2020, she was a story lead on the Academy-Award nominated Onward, then later wrote and directed a 2D animated Pixar short film titled Burrow, originally slated to play in theaters before the feature film Soul. In October 2020, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the short would instead premiere on Disney+. In 2022, she served as a storyboard artist for Turning Red. In 2024, she served as an associate executive producer on the Disney+ series Dream Productions. In June 2025, she made her feature directorial debut with Elio, alongside Domee Shi and Adrian Molina. After finishing Elio, Sharafian was confirmed to be developing another original Pixar feature film.
Filmography Feature films Year Title Director StoryWriter StorySupervisor StoryArtist AdditionalVoices Pixar SeniorCreative Team 2017 Coco 2020 Onward 2022 Turning Red 2025 Elio 2026 Hoppers Toy Story 5
Short films Year Title Director Writer Animator Other Notes [refs] 2013 Omelette Producer 2014 Acorn 2017 Weekends Cel painter Dante's Lunch Story artist 2018 Purl Story trust 2020 Burrow 2021 Twenty Something Story trust Nona Special thanks
Television Year Title Director Writer Story artist Other Notes [refs] 2014–17 We Bare Bears Character designer 2016 Goodnight Ice Bear Editor 2024 Dream Productions Associate executive producer
Accolades + Award Date Category Nominated work Result Refs Academy AwardsApril 25, 2021Best Animated ShortBurrowMarch 15, 2026Best Animated FeatureElio Annie AwardsFebruary 6, 2016Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Television/Broadcast ProductionWe Bare BearsFebruary 3, 2018Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in a Feature ProductionCoco Hollywood Critics AssociationMarch 5, 2021Best Short FilmBurrow
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