“Honestly, and I know it sounds sentimental, but when I became a writer, I held Pixar out as my beacon,” says Meg LeFauve. “At the time, I thought some of the best storytelling was coming out of Pixar and I had heard about the Brain Trust room. I thought the scariest, most thrilling thing I could do is be in that room as a writer with those Story Brains.”

Everybody told Meg it was impossible and that “they don’t even hire writers.” She adds, “But, you have to do what your gut tells you and you don’t go in a straight line, but I eventually got to go in and meet on a project.” She didn’t get hired on the first meeting but did land the job on Inside Out. 

Dave Holstein says, “In college, I remember watching the short film collections from Pixar and being endlessly moved by the work they were doing and that was one of my big career goals. 1. Run a TV show. 2. Write a Pixar movie. These things seemed too far away.”

Holstein initially met on Toy Story 4, didn’t get the first job, but was asked to meet on Onward and then, Inside Out 2. “It was a great combination of scheduling luck and having been on their list for a long time.” The screenwriter created the Jim Carrey series Kidding between Pixar meetings. 

As far as ongoing work with Pixar, the writers say you really need to be comfortable in a Writer’s Room and you need to be able to think and pitch ideas on the spot. “It doesn’t mean you have to come from television, but there’s that element to it. You’re with the Director and you come out of a screening and you have to pitch ideas how to fix it on your feet.”

Many writers start as “weekly” pitchers. “They want to know if you fit into this flow. Can you pitch on your feet? A lot of writers listen and then pitch so there’s no one way to do it, but that’s an element of working there that isn’t for all writers,” confirms LeFauve. “Like TV, the job is to serve a greater vision,” adds Holstein.

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