Alexandra “Lexie” Chu is a producer and executive in animation. Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment list, her work centers on global animation and long-term creative strategy. Her background includes animated feature development at Netflix and Skydance. She is a graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

 

What inspired you to pursue filmmaking as a career?

I was dragged to see How to Train Your Dragon. As a kid, I didn’t like “kids’” movies — I was sensitive to anything that talked down to its audience — so being dragged to a “stupid dragon movie” for my birthday annoyed me. But after seeing the film, I walked out of that theater knowing what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. How to Train Your Dragon showed me that art is a form of gift-giving – something that meets you where you are, respects your intelligence, and makes the world feel larger, more possible, and kinder. As a kid trying to find my place, that feeling changed everything. I became obsessed with the idea of giving that experience to others.

From there, I threw myself into film however I could. Film festivals, distribution, anime localization, and eventually working on my first feature film in high school. Over time, I realized that what excited me most wasn’t just the stories themselves, but the act of bringing people together to make them. I loved building teams, shaping ideas, and creating the conditions for creativity to thrive. That’s when producing clicked for me. 

I always knew I wanted to make animated stories. Producing became the way I could combine storytelling with world-building, collaboration, and care. I’ve since worked at Cartoon Network, Illumination, Netflix, and Skydance, alongside Disney and Pixar veterans, helping shape stories that reach global audiences. Along the way, I’ve also spent time building initiatives focused on long-term industry sustainability, which continues to inform how I approach storytelling and collaboration today.

At the core, I love being a producer. I love building worlds, teams, and opportunities, and creating the conditions for other voices to be heard. Animation is where my heart has always been, and I feel incredibly lucky to be doing this work.

Was SCA always part of your plan? Tell us a bit about your journey to SCA?

I had no plan. Someone simply suggested I look into SCA, and at the time it didn’t mean much — until I walked through the gates. Almost immediately, something clicked. I had the opportunity to shadow David Maquilling and sit in on a class, and instead of being treated like a prospective student, I was brought directly into the work and class discussion. I was setting up C-stands on the soundstage, working alongside current students, and I remember thinking, This is it. This is the community I want to learn in and eventually support.
What stood out to me was how collaborative everyone was. People were passionate, driven, and deeply invested in one another’s success. That mattered to me, because filmmaking isn’t something you do alone. I could feel that SCA believed in succeeding together as a collective.
When I applied, I focused less on getting into a specific school and more on being honest about what I wanted to create and the kind of industry I hoped to help build. I’m incredibly grateful to John Rosenberg for seeing something in my writing and giving me that opportunity. Looking back, walking onto campus was the moment I realized I had found a community that matched how I already thought about storytelling and collaboration.

Were there any classes, professors, or experiences that were particularly impactful?

I have to start at the beginning: Sev Ohanian. He was my first producing professor, and learning the ropes of the industry from him is an education I truly don’t think I could have gotten anywhere else. I was incredibly lucky to be part of his last cohort as a professor. He taught us not just how to produce, but how to make things actually move. He wasn’t romantic about it; he was real. He gave us a genuine toolkit to succeed. 

What stayed with me most was the dialogue. He constantly challenged how we thought, and if he believed we could be better, he pushed us to be sharper. Seeing his approach to leadership firsthand was a game changer for me. His unwillingness to let us settle — the same care and insistence on quality he brings to his films — helped define, and continues to refine, the kind of producer I am. Being taken under his wing was one of the keystone experiences of my time at SCA.

Because I was bouncing between the SCA production and animation worlds, the animation faculty also took me under their wing. Even though I wasn’t officially in the major, they treated me like one of their own, fondly calling me an honorary animation major. I had especially meaningful career conversations with Teresa Cheng. Very few people wanted to be producers — much less producers focused on animated films — and she was one of the only faculty members who truly understood that path and helped me turn those ambitions into something concrete.

That guidance directly led to my first real industry opportunity, thanks to USC alum and production MFA grad Alex Weiss Morgan, who had also followed the live-action-to-animation route. Alex had come to Teresa wanting to teach students how to survive in the animation industry and get hired. She immediately said, “You need to meet this student,” and connected us.

We hit it off right away. Alex invited me to DreamWorks, where I found out I was interviewing with studio production leadership — the same team behind the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, who were just moving on to their next project. It felt surreal. I didn’t get the internship at the time (though getting to know them was a gift in itself), but the relationship stayed with me and came full circle a few years later. After graduation, my résumé landed on Alex’s desk again through industry colleagues who were rooting for me to break in. She remembered me — and by then, she was heading to Netflix. She pulled me in with her, and that opened the door to the next chapter of my work. So when I talk about what made my journey possible, it’s not just one professor or one class, but the entire SCA ecosystem. Faculty, alumni, classmates, mentors. I genuinely wouldn’t be where I am without that community, and I’m endlessly grateful for all of them.

 

📷 ©Academy Museum Foundation, Photos by: Owen Kolasinski

What about the art and science of animation interests you? 

I love animation because you get to craft every single detail. You get to be incredibly intentional about how you communicate with an audience: what you’re saying, how you’re saying it, and why. We’re allowed to slow down and really think about how our work affects the people who watch it, especially kids and families. Animation has a huge influence on the next generation, which means we also carry a huge responsibility. The values we put into these stories matter. We have to be thoughtful. We have to be careful. We have to be intentional.
Animation isn’t small; it’s a massive global industry valued at over $460B. That means there are a lot of people relying on these stories to help them understand the world and their place in it. For me, making animated movies is a reminder that art can be a force for good. These stories often meet people where they are — offering comfort, perspective, and connection without needing to explain themselves. Animation has a rare ability to do that quietly, across cultures and generations. 

That’s what continues to draw me to this medium. There are many ways to tell stories, but animation, to me, has a uniquely powerful heart.

 

Could you share with us a bit more about your creative process? Do you take inspiration from any aspect of your own life and integrate it into your stories? If so, in what way and how?

I feel like who I am shows up not just in the stories I help make, but in how we make them. I’m a builder at heart. I love creating structures that help people succeed and be creative. And for me, being a producer isn’t only about taking care of the audience, it’s about taking care of the people making the work. At the end of the day, what matters most to me is that my teams are happy and healthy, because that leads to better creativity and better stories.

Working across different countries and cultures has shaped how I see animation — not as an industry divided by borders, but as a shared language that travels more easily than we think.

One of the things I really love about animation is how deeply people-centered the culture can be. There’s a real emphasis on caring for each other. A lot of that connects to my international upbringing and my Asian values: looking out for one another, thinking collectively, and understanding that we’re better when we succeed together. In Hollywood, it’s easy to get stuck on the individual path, but I truly believe we’re all on the same ship. Yes, companies compete, but at the core, we’re here to make more art. And the more aligned we are about how we move forward as an industry, the better Hollywood can become.

Through my work at Netflix and Skydance, I’ve been on the executive and development side, which gave me insight into how decisions are made. That experience clarified for me how much of the creative outcome is shaped by the systems around it — and it made me want to engage at that level more directly. That’s what led me to start my nonprofit. For the past five years, I’ve been working with an incredible team of more than 120 year-round volunteers, with over 6,500 members across 92 countries. I like to joke that I run a small country in my free time. I tell my team: build the industry you want to work in. I trust you. Take care of each other. Take care of yourselves. And let that care fuel your creativity. Watching that community grow has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life.
 

Your work founding the nonprofit Asians in Animation has been incredible! What prompted you to build this community, and what kind of outreach has AIA done through program and development?

Asians in Animation began as a response to the rise in anti-Asian hate during COVID. At the time, I was working at Netflix. After the Atlanta spa shootings, leadership knew I cared deeply about community care and asked if I would help create a safe space for Asian employees. That effort became the first Netflix Animation Employee Resource Group, Asians at Netflix Animation. From there, the conversations quickly expanded beyond internal support. We began asking bigger questions with studio leadership: How do we take better care of our people? How do we build systems that train, retain, and sustain talent long-term? Those discussions brought together people at every level of the industry — from students and early-career artists to longtime directors from Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks. When it became clear that this work couldn’t live solely inside one company, I realized we didn’t have to wait for permission. We could build it independently.

What started as four people grew to over a thousand within a week. Today, Asians in Animation is an educational and production-focused organization working toward long-term representation and sustainability in animation. What began as a community effort has evolved into a structured incubator for emerging talent — focused on skill acceleration, career translation, and original IP development — designed to support the industry at scale.

We partner with major animation studios, run training and development programs, and support between 50 and 200 mentees each year. Our programs are built to make education and industry access more transparent and more attainable, especially for creators who might otherwise fall through the cracks. While our roots are in the Asian community, the infrastructure we’re building is meant to benefit everyone.

At the heart of our work is a simple belief: we don’t have to wait for permission to build the industry we want to work in. We equip people with the tools to package projects, pitch them, and move from learning into practice. With a generational shift underway — and so many talented artists navigating instability in animation — it’s clear the old systems alone aren’t enough. Our goal is to help build durable, scalable pathways forward.

 

Congrats on being named one of Forbes’s 30 under 30 in 2026! How exciting. Did you expect to be recognized? Were there any projects that helped contribute to this recognition?

I’m deeply honored, but I also feel like I’m just getting started. I believed in what we were building and was grateful to see it recognized. That recognition was for Asians in Animation, and I’m grateful that this visibility allows us to open more doors at a larger scale for thoughtful, prepared next-gen animation leaders. It’s a nod that what we’re building is working, and that the change we’re creating really matters. I think Forbes recognized the mission because it’s about challenging the status quo.

I’ve always been drawn to building systems that outlast individual projects and become structures that allow good work and good people to keep moving forward. We’re working toward an industry that’s kinder, more inclusive, and more supportive of its people. And that’s not a far-fetched dream. We can continue to create the industry we want to inhabit, whether we’re just starting out or already deep in our careers. We can build an industry that’s ambitious, humane, and creatively bold at the same time.

That philosophy shapes everything I do as a producer, and I really credit that mindset to SCA. Being there taught me to be a self-starter and to dream big even when no one else around me was on the same path. I always knew I wanted to make emotion-forward, globally minded films — heart-and-soul-bearing stories with vibrant heroines and a sense of scale that balances intimacy with the grandiosity of cinema. That creative focus already made me a little different, but my mentors gave me the tools and encouragement to go for it anyway. So, this recognition is really a reflection of that foundation: of being empowered to pursue a vision that's different, and of believing that anything is possible.

What advice would you give to those looking to get their animated project made?

My advice is simple: double down on what you love. If you’re passionate about what you do, your audience will feel it too. Care about your work, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they’re not the right audience. The more you embrace who you are, the more you’ll attract the people who will champion and support you. Anything you want to do is possible, whether it’s a small project or a big animated feature. You don’t have to wait for permission. Start reaching out, share your dream, and ask for guidance. That’s how things get made: by following your love and pulling that thread. In animation, we make what we love, and it works. So don’t dim your light for anyone. Build your own version of Hollywood.

 

What’s next? Any personal projects or new developments in the coming months?

I’m currently thinking deeply about long-form storytelling and original IP, and continuing to develop animated projects from a creative and strategic perspective. Alongside my studio work, I also spend time advising and mentoring emerging creatives — helping them think through early development, team-building, and creative direction as they learn how to bring projects to life. Through my work with Asians in Animation, we continue to nurture talent and support the next generation of animation leaders, offering guidance on early development and how to move ideas forward sustainably.

On a personal level, I’m focused on building stories with emotional weight, global perspective, and real staying power. I love being a producer because I love building opportunities to shape spaces where ambitious, emotionally grounded, and globally resonant stories can be made with care.

At the end of the day, I want to make animated films worth remembering. Stories that stay with people. There’s a huge audience out there hungry for animated work with heart, and I’m excited to share what’s coming next.
 

Story by Emily Tutnick