Pete Oswald facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pete Oswald
Oswald in 2016
Born	Peter Jacob Oswald (1980-07-08) July 8, 1980 (age 45) Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Alma mater	Loyola Marymount University
Known for	Production design
Notable work	The Garfield Movie The Angry Birds Movie ParaNorman
Style	Animation Stop motion Book illustration Painting

Pete Oswald (born July 8, 1980) is a talented artist. He is famous for being an illustrator and a production designer. You might know his work from movies like The Angry Birds Movie series and ParaNorman.

Pete also writes and illustrates popular children's books. He is also a painter. His books include The Good Egg and The Bad Seed. These are both bestsellers and part of The Food Group series. Jory John writes these books.

Early Life and Education

Pete Oswald grew up in Bountiful, Utah. His mother was an artist too. She encouraged him to start painting and drawing when he was young. He went to Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. There, he played baseball and basketball.

After high school in 1999, Pete moved to Los Angeles. He studied at Loyola Marymount University. He earned a degree in animation arts. After college, he started working in film and television animation in Los Angeles.

Pete gets ideas from many famous artists. Some of his inspirations include Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet. He also admires Mary Blair and Al Hirschfeld.

Creative Career

Pete Oswald has illustrated all the books in Jory John's The Food Group series. This popular series includes The Bad Seed, The Good Egg, and The Cool Bean. Other books in the series are The Couch Potato, The Smart Cookie, The Sour Grape, and The Big Cheese. The Bad Seed was praised for its funny and heartwarming style.

Pete and Jory John also created That’s What Dinosaurs Do. Pete's first book that he wrote himself was Hike. This book was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. In 2023, he released The Noise Inside Boys: A Story About Big Feelings. This book was inspired by his own experiences raising his three sons. Pete also helped create the children's book Mingo the Flamingo.

Designing Animated Movies

Pete Oswald has worked as a production designer and in the art department for many animated family movies and TV shows. He is well-known for his work on The Angry Birds Movie in 2016. For this film, he helped change the characters, lighting, and sets from the popular mobile game into a movie. He spent four years working on this film series.

People noticed Pete's bright and colorful style in The Angry Birds Movie. In 2016, he appeared at San Diego Comic-Con in San Diego, California. He returned as production designer for The Angry Birds Movie 2 in 2019. Pete also worked as the production designer for The Garfield Movie, which came out in 2024. He spent over four years on this project. He looked at Jim Davis's Garfield comic strips from the 1980s to create new computer-generated versions of the famous characters.

Pete has also been a visual artist for other popular animated films. These include Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. He also worked on ParaNorman, Hotel Transylvania, and The Lego Ninjago Movie.

Painting and Art Shows

Besides his animation and illustration work, Pete also paints with acrylics. In 2016, he showed his painting series called Pacific Abstract. These paintings were inspired by the beautiful California coast. He displayed them at an art gallery show in Santa Monica, California.

Film and Television Work

Film Projects

Television Projects

Books Illustrated

• Attack of the Underwear Dragon (2020)
• Return of the Underwear Dragon (2021)

Awards and Nominations

Pete Oswald has been recognized for his amazing work.