Mexican-born filmmaker Carlos López Estrada has been announced as the co-director of Disney’s new animated film Raya and the Last Dragon, to be co-directed with Don Hall. The film will star Kelly Marie Tran as the titular heroine, marking the first Southeast Asian to lead a Disney animated film. Set in the fictional fantasy land of Kumandra, the films follows a fearless warrior as she seeks to save the realm from evil forces.
López Estrada was born in Mexico, and moved to the United States at age 12. He later enrolled at Chapman University. He made his feature film directorial debut in 2018 with Blindspotting, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a DGA Award. He directed an episode of FX’s Legion. He has made videos for musicians such as Billie Eilish, Father John Misty, Thundercat, and Flying Lotus, and in 2012, he won a Latin Grammy for Video of the Year. This January he premiered his second feature film Summertime also at Sundance.
