Please Rewind Talent Wall

Bob Peterson

Bob Peterson’s career has moved freely between drawing, writing, directing and performing, with voice work becoming one of his most familiar contributions to Pixar’s films and short-form projects. Born in Wooster on January 18, 1961, Peterson began developing his artistic side while studying mechanical engineering at Ohio Northern University from 1979 to 1983. There, he drew the weekly cartoon “For Pete’s Sake.” As a graduate student at Purdue University from 1983 to 1986, he created “Loco Motives” for the Purdue Exponent student newspaper. A paperback collection of those cartoons was published before his graduation in December 1986. Peterson’s voice roles show a knack for characters who make an impression quickly. He voiced Geri in the 1997 short Geri’s Game, then brought the dry, ever-watchful Roz to Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. As Mr. Ray in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, he played an enthusiastic teacher guiding a reef full of young students. Up gave him two sharply contrasting parts: the affectionate, easily distracted Dug and the imposing Alpha. He later voiced Chick Hicks in Cars 3 when Michael Keaton was unavailable to return to the role. In Elio (2025), Peterson voices the Universal Users Manual. His work is not limited to the recording booth. Peterson conceived The Good Dinosaur and served as its director until leaving the project in August 2013. He also created, wrote and directed Forky Asks a Question and Dug Days, two short-form series built around established Pixar characters. Dug Days was an especially natural return to a character whose eager sincerity Peterson had already helped define in Up. That range—from student cartoonist to animator, screenwriter, director and voice actor—gives Peterson’s career an unusually hands-on shape. Whether playing a stern administrator, a cheerful ray or two very different dogs, he has repeatedly found personality in voices that need only a few lines to establish an entire character.