Bob Peterson was born in Wooster, Ohio, USA, in 1961. He studied
mechanical engineering at Ohio Northern University, where he took
computer graphics courses and graduated in 1983. He continued his
studies in mechanical engineering at Purdue University where he earned
a master's degree in 1986. While a student, he wrote and drew a cartoon
strip called "Loco Motives". Before joining Pixar in 1994, he worked at
Wavefront Technologies, Inc. and Rez-n-8 Productions.
Lorne Lanning, co-creator of Oddworld praised Peterson for his Roz voice due to how Lanning is impressed the animators of Pixar voice some of their own characters.