[Dr.] Stuart Sumida is a biologist and paleontologist who earned his bachelors and doctoral degrees from UCLA, and later did postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. He is now a professor of Biology at the California State University campus in San Bernardino and president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the largest professional organization of paleontologists in the world.  He studies animal structure, function, and evolution; he has written three books and nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications. 

He has worked as an animal and human anatomical consultant to animation and VFX studios for over 35 years, first working with Walt Disney Feature Animation on Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, and others.  Since then he has worked with DreamWorks, SONY ImageWorks, DreamQuest, PIXAR, Blue Sky, MPC, FrameStore, Double Negative, Industrial Light and Magic, and Walt Disney Imagineering.  He has worked on over 100 feature film projects, including the first and last Harry Potter films, the How to Train Your Dragon films, Life of Pi, Ratatouille, the first Guardians, of the Galaxy, Greatest Showman, Jumanji, Zootopia, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, Soul, and others. More recently he is credited for his work on Disney's Zootopia 2, and DreamWorks’ Wild Robot. He has been an anatomical consultant to Blizzard Games, Creative Assembly, RIOT, and the first version of Horizon Zero Dawn for Guerrilla Games.