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Didier Ghez: When and where were you born and what did you do before you joined Disney?

Chris Runco: I was born in Whittier, California, probably not far away from where John Lasseter grew up. When I was ten years old, we moved to La Habra, adjacent to Whittier. After I got married, I moved to Brea, which is right next to La Habra. So I kept moving east in that whole process—and closer to Disneyland!

After my first year, in the summer, I applied for a job at Disneyland because I think every kid in north Orange County at some point said, “I’m going to work at Disneyland for a while.” I applied to be a ride operator. They called me in for an interview and the interviewer said, “I see here that you do caricatures.” I said, “Yeah, I did some of those at school.” He said, “Do you think you can do portraits?” I said, “Sure!” Not knowing if that was true or not. […]

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