Athena Xenakis

Athena Xenakis is a Senior Shading Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios, contributing to renowned projects such as Inside Out 2 (2024), Elemental (2023), and Toy Story 4 (2019), among others, since June 2004. Prior experience includes serving as a Technical Director at Blue Sky Studios from September 1999 to May 2004, where notable works included Robots (2005) and Ice Age (2002). Athena also held an Assistant Professor position at New York University, teaching compositing and 3D graphics, and worked as a TD Generalist at Nickelodeon in 2002. Athena earned a BFA in Painting and Multimedia from Purchase College, SUNY, from 1995 to 1999.