Catherynne A. Jean

Catherynne Jean is an innovative Director, Creative, Art Director, Creative Director and Designer with over 35 years of experience in show design, storytelling, production, & fabrication.

Originally trained in illustration and animation, Catherynne was introduced to the themed entertainment industry during the production of Japan’s Sanrio Puroland. Young colleagues on the project like Luc Mayrand and Scott Trowbridge noticed Catherynne’s elegant sense of color and meticulous attention to detail.

Working for years as a project-based designer and art director, Jean played key roles in projects for Landmark Entertainment, Paramount Parks, and Universal Creative. For the latter she provided art direction on lands and attractions for Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Japan, Universal Singapore, and Universal’s Porto Europa Theme Park in Japan. Along the way she has learned conversational French, Japanese, Chinese and “a bit” of Spanish, endearing her to the local vendors.

Coming to Disney in 2011, Catherynne served as the Art Director for Shanghai Disneyland’s Treasure Cove land, for the spectacular and Thea Award winning, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure attraction. From there she provided in-field art direction for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World Resort and contributed to new E-Ticket attractions coming soon to Tokyo Disney Resort.

One of Catherynne’s greatest passions is color. Color is an incredibly subtle art, and she handles it without hesitation, making sophisticated and complex harmonies, that all flow effortlessly, and set the emotional landscape of all the environments in her projects.

Over the last ten years, Catherynne has been even more focused on helping the younger members of her various teams understand the why's and how's of their individual crafts and also learn to find their own voice. She works with them to further develop their skills to understand how their design choices are realized and how each choice impacts the overall quality of the project. She also mentors them to be proactive, and to keep their skills sharp so they will be able to continue working as the industry advances with new digital tools etc.

Most recently, Catherynne has joined Universal’s Epic Universe, the new theme park under construction at Universal Orlando Resort, as Director, Creative. Epic Universe will be the largest Universal Park in the U.S. and Catherynne is excited to help this vision come to fruition. 

Catherynne Jean is a consummate creative leader and master of her craft.