Meet The Married Lesbians Behind Pixar's 'Monsters University'

Kori Rae and Darla Anderson first met on a gay and lesbian softball team in San Francisco in 1991, according to a touching new interview in the San Francisco Gate. The happily married couple admits that their meet-cute was a stereotypical lesbian moment, but the following two decades together have been nothing but authentic, they say. 

A decade later, Rae and Anderson formally began dating while both were serving as producers on Disney Pixar's Monsters, Inc. Between the two of them, they've helped create most of Pixar's record-breaking films, including Up, Toy Story 3, Cars, The Incredibles, and A Bug's Life. Lately they've been working together on the Pixar's latest prequel, Monsters University, which earned an impressive $82.4 million on its opening weekend. Both women also participated in Pixar's video submission to the It Gets Better Project. (Watch that video below.)

The couple, who were married twice in California — first in 2004, and again in 2008 during the brief window when same-sex unions were legal before voters passed Proposition 8 — are currently on a press tour for Monsters U in Japan, but they caught up with the Gate's Peter Hartlaub just after news of the Supreme Court's rulings striking down Prop. 8 and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act on Wednesday. 

Anderson said she wasn't out when she first began working for Pixar 20 years ago, but notes that she's always felt accepted and encouraged by her coworkers, who helped the couple celebrate their first wedding in 2004.

"In ’04 there were a few couples at work" who got married, said Anderson. "We have a[ LGBT company group] group called the Pix-mos. A few people got married that year — at least two other couples. A lot of our co-employees had a big wedding cake for all of us. The grooms with the grooms, the brides with the brides, all over the cake. It was pretty fun."

Rae told the Gate she was pleasantly surprised by Pixar's welcoming atmosphere, since she was prepared to leave the company in order to be with Anderson.

"We got together (during) the last year of Monsters Inc. in 2001," explained Rae. "I figured I’d have to leave the show, and I was willing to leave the company at that point. We had talked about it. But they were completely great. They said 'Of course not. You’re such a great team, a producing team. We’d love for you to keep working together.' They were nothing but supportive, and have been the whole time."

Read more about the happy couple and how they maintain a work-life balance when they share demanding, high-pressure jobs with the same production company, right here. 

And check out Pixar's It Gets Better video, featuring Anderson, Rae, and numerous other LGBT Pix-mos, below. 

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