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2026 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Daniel Baker
Daniel Baker is a storyteller working at the edge of what's possible.
As a longtime Disney producer and now Executive Product Manager for Interactive & Immersive at Disney+, Daniel has spent over 15 years at the frontier of a single idea: that technology doesn't just change how stories are told, it unlocks entirely new mediums for telling them. That vision has taken him across the full landscape of The Walt Disney Company, producing theme park experiences, mobile apps, immersive experiences, and spatial computing platforms that have reached audiences around the world.
His work allows audiences to step into a Marvel story and sling webs alongside Spider-Man with WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure, an interactive ride Daniel produced at Walt Disney Imagineering for Disney California Adventure in Anaheim and Disney Adventure World in Paris.
Daniel has brought the story from the films into audiences' own living rooms, where characters appear in the real world via augmented reality, volumetric capture, and film-caliber VFX, with The Eternals: AR Story Experience, Marvel Studios' first immersive story experience at Walt Disney Studios.
And he has transformed how audiences watch their favorite stories, launching Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest VR headsets, where fans can watch from inside iconic environments like the Scare Floor from Pixar’s Monsters Inc. or from the cockpit of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder on the planet Tatooine from the Star Wars galaxy.
A UCLA TFT alumnus returning to the campus where his own career began, Daniel now teaches at UCLA, where his course Art & Process of Entertainment Design explores how interactive and immersive storytelling is reshaping the entertainment industry. He also speaks at leading conferences around the world including AWE USA, is a member of the Television Academy's Emerging Media peer group, a Producers Guild of America member and PGA Innovation Award Nominee.
He returns to UCLA this spring as DSW's Keynote Speaker to make the case that the most exciting chapter in the history of storytelling is just beginning, and that the designers in this room are the ones who will create it.