Valerio Ventura

Valerio Ventura was born and raised a few blocks away from Cinecitta' Studios in Rome, Italy. As a teenager, Ventura used to scale the walls of the legendary studios to get glimpses of the filmmaking process, and the locations of the Sergio Leone's films. He graduated from the Liceo Artistico di Roma, where he was classically trained in sculpting, painting and drawing. In 1981, Ventura moved to California and started his professional career as a designer working in the film and television industry. By the mid-80's Ventura was working as a writer and conceptual designer in the development aspect of feature films and TV shows. From 1991 to 1994 Ventura co-art directed with his wife and partner Gay Lawrence the award winning TV series, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child, for HBO, and co-production designed the Turner Pictures feature film The Pagemaster, starring Macaulay Culkin, directed by Maurice Hunt and Joe Johnston. Additionally, he has worked in the creative development of features for the Walt Disney Co. and Universal Studios. In 2000 Ventura co-founded Kontrast Films in Burbank, CA. working as chief creative director with clients such as; Fed-Ex/C.A.R.T., Simple Green, the Dept. of Transportation, Ford and many more. At Kontrast Films Ventura directed two national PSAs for Fuel International working with blockbuster movie producer Jonathan Shestack ("Air Force One", "Dan in Real Life"), featuring actor Anthony Edwards ("E.R."), for Cure Autism Now Foundation and the MARC USA agency. One of the spot was shot on the Warner Bros. lot and the other at the Indianapolis Speedway. By 2005 Ventura had accumulated over a dozen awards including, for two years in a row, the prestigious Platinum award at the 34th and 35th Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival for two of his TV spots. And many other awards for Best Buy's Art Of The Appliance 2002-03 campaign, which featured BMX champion Mat Hoffman, legendary race car driver Mario Andretti, and rock star Billy Idol. In summer 2008 Ventura wrapped up two seasons as supervising art director for Cartoon Network Studios on the Emmy award winning TV series "Class of 3000", and directed the animated music video "Turn of the Century" featuring the voice and musical talent of André Benjamin (André 3000/Outkast.) Ventura's first film "Winter" premiered at the 2008 Zero Film Festival in Los Angeles, the film was selected to screen at the festival's closing night. In 2009, "Winter" collected a Platinum award at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival. After a two-year period at Disney Television Animation, Ventura received a Primetime Emmy Award for his work as designer on the TV series Mickey Mouse Shorts. Ventura lives in South Pasadena, California.