Ashley Girdich is an executive-technical program manager at Walt Disney Imagineering's Research & Development group (WDI R&D). She has worked on multiple iterations of "living characters" based around the Star Wars franchise which have appeared in Disney Parks with varying degrees of autonomy. Most notable in Star Wars are J4-K3, the autonomous droid who was featured alongside Girdich in the 2019 Disney+ documentary One Day at Disney following a series of play-tests at Disneyland[3] and D23[4] from 2016[5] to 2017,[6] and the still-in-development BDX droids, which have appeared at Disney Parks around the world, including Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at both Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios.[2]
Sources
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Steele, Bruce. One Day at Disney: Meet the People Who Make the Magic Across the Globe, Disney Editions, 2019-12-03. ISBN 9781368052245.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
NEW Robotic Olaf Revealed! Inside Disney Imagineering R&D | We Call It Imagineering on the Walt Disney Imagineering YouTube channel (November 24, 2025) (backup link)
- ↑ One Day At Disney
- ↑ Jake the Star Wars Droid roams around Disney Parks and Resorts Pavilion at D23 Expo 2017 on the Attractions Magazine YouTube channel (July 22, 2017) (backup link)
- ↑ New Jake Droid in Star Wars Launch Bay! (Disneyland) on the Keith Lapinig YouTube channel (May 29, 2016) (backup link)
- ↑
Jake the Droid visits Tomorrowland at Disneyland on Geek's Blog (backup link archived on March 27, 2018)