Madeline Sharafian
Madeline Sharafian is an American film director, screenwriter, and storyboard artist. She is best known for her work at Pixar, including directing the short film Burrow and the feature film Elio.
Early life
Sharafian was born in Alameda, California, and is of Armenian descent. By 2013, she was enrolled in CalArts.Career
In 2013, Sharafian wrote and directed the short film Omelette. In 2014, she served as a storyboard artist, writer, and character designer on the Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears. In 2017, she storyboarded sequences for Coco and Dante's Lunch. In 2020, she was a story lead on the Academy-Award nominated Onward, then later wrote and directed a 2D animated Pixar short film titled Burrow, originally slated to play in theaters before the feature film Soul. In October 2020, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the short would instead premiere on Disney+. In 2022, she served as a storyboard artist for Turning Red. In June 2025, she made her feature directorial debut with Elio, alongside Domee Shi and Adrian Molina.Before Elio, she also served as the associate executive producer on the Disney+ series Dream Productions.