Nexus Studios Signs Director Carlos López Estrada

Nexus Studios has announced the signing of Raya and the Last Dragon director, Carlos López Estrada. Bringing with him an impressive and eclectic body of work, he has garnered global recognition and a bevy of industry accolades, including an Academy-Award-nomination and a Latin-Grammy-win.

Carlos seamlessly crosses genres and techniques, delivering sleek mixed media commercials, creating award-winning indie features and 3D animated blockbusters for Disney to live theatre productions and TV. The Mexican-born, LA-based director weaves humour, cultural heritage and spoken word into his storytelling making him one of the most exciting directors of today.

His clever concept-driven music promos showcase a variety of innovative and wildly imaginative techniques, including bringing Billie Eilish to gruesome tears, casting a troop of real life baboons in a video for pop-quartet, Caged Animals, creating a cut out performance from Hamilton star, Daveed Diggs, and bringing together the unexpected pairing of Katy Perry and Pikachu.

His debut feature film, Blindspotting propelled him into notoriety after its premiere at Sundance Film Festival and subsequent release by Lionsgate Entertainment. President Obama marked it as one of his favourite movies of the year and also earned Carlos an ‘Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film’ nomination by the Directors Guild of America, with a succeeding spin off TV sequel premiering in 2021.

Carlos was named as one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch, and his work has been featured in SXSW, LA Film Festival, Cartoon Network and the Hammer Museum as well as high profile publications including Vice, TIME Magazine and The Guardian. 

Carlos is currently directing a thought-provoking, animated feature documentary in development at Nexus Studios, set to release in 2023, as well as the live-action adaptation of Disney’s Robin Hood.

“Carlos is a unique talent with a body of work that encompasses high end animated features, inventive music work and emotionally impactful live action storytelling. He’s a lovely human being with a rare combination of talents and we couldn’t be more delighted to have him join the roster of exceptional talent at Nexus Studios” - Christopher O’Reilly, co-founder and ECD, Nexus Studios

“Joining the Nexus family is a dream. I've been in awe of their creativity and their innovation for a long time. I cannot wait to get started making things together” - Carlos López Estrada, director, Nexus Studios