Dr. Elizabeth Rega is a Professor of Anatomy at Western University of Health Sciences near Los Angeles and a frequent consultant to the film, animation and gaming industry. She has published numerous scientific and popular articles on teaching and on the anatomy and pathology of ancient humans, dinosaurs and other fossil and sub-fossil animals and conducted fieldwork on three different continents.

Her skill in creatively conveying morphology to medical students has led her to projects with incWalt Disney Feature Animation, Dreamworks Animation, SONY Pictures Imageworks and EA Sports. She provides an anatomical and anthropological perspectives to inform the development and animation of characters, as well as to highlight the problematic history of racial depictions in film, animation, and entertainment.
She has numerous video, podcast and live appearances to her credit (most recently ComiCon LA) and has collaborated on a lengthy list of films and games, including Lion King, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Mulan, Hollowman, Beowulf, Brother Bear, Tangled, Madden 2016 and others films currently in production. Her most recent work is on Disney’s Strange World, where she is featured in the “making of” content. Dr. Rega was consulting anatomist for Imagineering on the design and rigging of the President Obama audio-animatronic figure for the Walt Disney World Hall of Presidents. Her recent work with the video game industry has concentrated on realistic depictions of eye movement and facial expression.

Dr. Rega has lived in California since 1995, but is from Detroit, MI. Therefore, she has a history of supporting (mostly) losing Michigan sports teams and enjoying good microbrew. Dr. Rega received her BA in Biology and German from Valparaiso University, attended the University of Tubingen in Germany and earned her masters and Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology from the University of Chicago. She trained dozens of students as a Teaching Fellow at Sheffield University in the UK. She is currently a tenured Professor of Anatomy and Associate Provost at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif., where she teaches gross anatomy and musculo-skeletal biology to medical, dental, physician assistant and other graduate students. She is also a Visiting Professor of Biology at the Keck Science Center of the Claremont Colleges, where she teaches comparative vertebrate and human anatomy to undergraduates.