Bobby Pontillas landed on my radar because of his work on TJ, the first Filipino-American Muppet on Sesame Street. The four-year-old, ube-nosed, brown-complexioned character, who is learning Tagalog* from his lola, was introduced on the children’s show in May 2023. “I came up with the designs very quickly,” Bobby recalls. The process was a collaboration with fellow Filipino-American Rosemary Palacios, Sesame Workshop’s Director of Talent Outreach, Inclusion, and Creative Development; and Louis Henry Mitchell, its Creative Director of Character Design. They made a concentrated effort to create a distinctly Filipino representation, taking into account not just physical features but also personality.
TJ, the Filipino-American Muppet designed by Bobby Pontillas for Sesame Street (Image from Sesame Workshop)
I thought Bobby was the coolest for having created something for Sesame Street. I mean, Sesame Street?! Wow! But it turns out I ain’t seen nothing yet, the guy’s got quite the portfolio. One of his projects was even in the running for an Oscar in 2019.
One Small Step was nominated for Best Animated Short Film in the Academy Awards. Bobby juggled the roles of concept creator, art director, and director in the moving story of a Chinese-American girl with a cosmic ambition. The 7-minute animation under Taiko Studios brought out all the feels in me.
Before all these, he was an animator for games at ArenaNet and contributed to Guild Wars as well as some Nintendo Wii games. He was also connected with Blue Sky Studios for a bit and was involved in titles such as Ice Age and Rio. For eight years, he worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios and had a hand in movies that we are all very familiar with like Wreck it Ralph, Big Hero 6, Frozen, Zootopia, Moana, and the Tangled: The Series, to name a few.
To be part of Disney Animation was a dream born in 1999 as he was in the middle of his associates degree at the Art Institute of Seattle. While he’s always had a love for drawing, he didn’t quite know what to do with his talent. That is until he watched Tarzan. “This is what I want to do!” he thought to himself. No, not swing from vines, but create animated movies. “I just became obsessed with Disney animation. It completely changed my direction in life, it inspired me and brought out the hard worker in me,” he shares.
Little Bobby Pontillas with his mother, Cosette (image from @bobbypontillas on Instagram)
Bobby pursued his goal with singular focus and intentional effort. He even signed up for additional courses at Animation Mentor. Finally, after a little more than a decade, he found himself reporting for duty at Disney Animation. “It’s a wild feeling. I remember the first day I stepped into Disney, the only thing I could think about was the people who supported me along the way,” he reminisces.
His mom, Cosette Pontillas, was the first to come to mind. Mama P, as Bobby fondly calls her, single-handedly raised her son while working for the U.S. Navy. Despite knowing nothing about animation, she encouraged Bobby to pursue his passion. “All props to her, I don’t know why she was so open-minded about it, it’s a rare thing for a mom to take that position. Maybe she had a gut feeling, like ‘I want this kid to be happy.’ It was a big gamble for her.” Fortunately, Mama P hit the jackpot!
Today, Bobby is someone many look up to, but it wasn’t easy to get to where he is. “Ever since I got out of school, the whole thing is an uphill climb, the whole thing! I don’t think there’s ever an aspect where you’re not climbing uphill to make something happen for yourself. When you get your first job, you’re the worst one at your job. So it’s an uphill climb because you’re new. And then you go to another job where the bar is higher. So again, you’re the worst one, it’s an uphill climb. And then when you decide to try a different discipline within animation and you’re terrible at it, it’s an uphill climb. And then after that, you’re like, okay, there’s this opportunity, they want me to be a director, an art director, I don’t know anything about either of those, I’ve never done it before, it’s an uphill climb,” he rattles off.
The 44-year-old stresses the importance of continuous education, learning from those who are more experienced, and maintaining a student mindset and growth mentality. “The minute you know it all, that’s the minute that you stagnate and you stop getting better,” he points out.
For the past couple of years, Bobby has been doing creative development and consulting for various companies. “I would help on the look of things, also sometimes the content,” he explains. After spending majority of his career at Disney, he now gets to work with other studios, from the likes of Netflix and Warner Brothers to smaller ones.
At the start of 2025, he decided to switch things up even further and call the Philippines his new playground. Yes, he is in the country, working on a project with Toon City Animation, which is helmed by Miguel del Rosario. Entitled Sun Chaser, the TV series concept revolves around a Filipino-American kid going back to his home country and discovering he has some sort of magical power from his family.
Bobby Pontillas with the team at Toon City Animation (image from @bobbypontillas on Instagram)
The immediate goal is for Sun Chaser to be accepted into the pitch fest at the upcoming Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the world’s biggest and most prestigious animation festival. This would provide a chance to present Sun Chaser to an audience of producers, fans, animation enthusiasts, and distributors – essentially, people who can fund the production and get the show rolling.
“I had the blueprint for the whole animated trailer done in storyboards already when I came to the Philippines. It was just about introducing the team at Toon City to the project and showing them how excited I am to do it, and then also get them excited about it. I want them to be creatively involved as much as possible, really give them ownership of a lot of the creative decisions on it,” he expresses.
Image from @bobbypontillas on Instagram
Bobby is relying on his Toon City colleagues to ensure the cultural authenticity of the narrative because he is admittedly very Americanized. But scrolling through his Instagram account, you would think otherwise, as his posts are all drawings of stuff like tricycles, jeepneys, duwende, kamayan, and Palawan. “All those art that you saw on my Instagram was me desperately trying to get back in touch with my culture,” he clarifies.
Image from @bobbypontillas on Instagram
Though he was born in Guam, he vacationed in the Philippines every few years for two weeks at a time. “So I have fleeting memories of the Philippines from when I was growing up. It stopped when I became a working professional. But at some point in your adult life, you’re like, who am I, what’s my identity, what’s my place in this world? And what do I know about my culture?” he muses.
So he’s been on a quest to reconnect. Not only that, but he’s also been on a mission to tell more Filipino stories in animation and highlight Filipino talent. “I never really did that in my whole career, I worked for big studios and had the Disney dream, and then was telling big studios stories. However, when we were nominated for the Academy Awards and the Filipino press and the community came out in droves in support of me, it kind of blew me away because I’d never felt that. I realized how much it meant to the culture, to our families, to the country to see themselves reflected on the world stage. So after that, I decided that if I’m going to do anything with my career from here on out, it’s going to be to pivot towards telling more Filipino stories.”
He mentions seeing kids in his hometown of Nabua, Camarines Sur wearing backpacks with characters such as Elsa from Frozen and pondering, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they had a Filipino hero to look up to or a Filipino to see themselves in these stories? Wouldn’t it be cool if they just saw a brown kid on screen or a hero on screen that’s from the Philippines? What would that mean to them?”
For his creations, he leans toward the Disney-Pixar-y kind of vibe, drawing from folklore and mythology but in a way that is brighter and more accessible, not dark and scary. That’s what he aspires to introduce to the world, and it is what he has been pitching to studios. His attempts have not been without obstacles, but he remains undeterred and continues to push forward in every way he can to give the Filipinos a platform.
Image from @bobbypontillas on Instagram
“A big part of me being here in the Philippines is to help elevate the quality and the work capacity of the industry here. So they can garner the accolades that they deserve. As a country, we have a long way to go, but if there’s a few people that are willing to mentor them, share their experiences from Hollywood, I think slowly, but surely it’ll change for the better. It’s a big task, but it starts with individual artists. Not only in the notes that you give, but the way that you behave, your work ethic,” he states.
Mentoring seems to truly be part of his programming. He’s been giving talks all over, handing down his knowledge. He also co-founded Rise Up Animation, which is “dedicated to increasing diverse talent in the animation industry by providing BIPOC with industry advice, portfolio feedback, resume feedback and the tools needed to turn their dreams into reality,” as described on their LinkedIn account.
“I want to encourage young artists from around the world to look at their own life experiences and share those stories instead of trying to be somebody else. You have a rich experience wherever you’re from – India, Africa, Philippines, those stories aren’t being told enough. If I can encourage young artists early on to embrace their own experiences and their own family and cultural heritage, then I feel like the animation industry and films will be richer because of it,” he says.
Bobby’s words are filled with optimism. Listening to him share his journey is truly inspiring, and hearing about his plans feels uplifting. It’s almost as if he’s surrounded by rainbows and unicorns. Perhaps a reflection of the animation work he does?
“I think so,” he contemplates. “I think just naturally, that’s just the kind of person I am. Kids aren’t jaded or cynical and that helps me to stay not jaded or not cynical. Also, to think like a child, and think with innocence, and think in a way that I can always learn. So you’re always curious, you’re always playful, you’re always like a kid,” he continues.
But he connects with more than just children, and when you go behind the scenes of every animated film, it’s nowhere near simple. Definitely no child’s play, it’s meticulous, labor-intensive, time-consuming, and technically complex work. And Bobby enjoys every bit of it!
“I love storytelling and animation that feels like it’s speaking to all demographics, both kids and adults, that’s something that I gravitate towards. I think when you’re talking to an audience that’s broad, it’s the purest form of storytelling you can get to and it sticks around for ages. Like those Disney films from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, they weren’t talking down to kids, but they weren’t also making content that excluded kids. It was more of a timeless thing, and that’s why they’ve stuck around for so long. That’s kind of how I want to leave my mark, and obviously with the imprint of the Philippines and this culture,” he closes.
Get the latest on Bobby’s work, follow @bobbypontillas on Instagram.
*The Philippines’ official national language is called Filipino not Tagalog
