The person most proud of Manarbek Toleu’s career is likely his 6-year-old daughter.
That’s because Toleu, a USC Price School of Public Policy alumnus, has designed a castle straight out of a fairy tale. He’s created a spaceship control panel fit for a galaxy from far, far away. He’s made master plans for snack stands that look like giant traffic cones.
And Toleu’s daughter, Mia, is eager to talk about her dad’s cool job.
“She tells everybody, ‘My dad works at Disney,’” Toleu said. “That gives me a lot of joy and pride.”
Toleu, who earned a Master of Urban Planning (MUP) with a certificate in real estate development in 2023, is an architectural designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative team behind the immersive experiences at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Toleu develops master plans and architectural drawings for the theme park, working on projects ranging from a monorail station cafe to a 50-foot sculpture of a princess castle, commemorating the park’s 70th anniversary.
“Disneyland is very iconic and a cherished place,” Toleu said. “I always wanted to see how the magic attractions and hotels and all these experiences get created, and I had no idea that someday I might actually get to participate in the projects.”
Toleu’s interest in design can be traced to his childhood in rural Kazakhstan, where he built horse stables on his family’s farm. Taking care of livestock taught him responsibility at a young age, and proved to be the genesis of his architectural ambitions.
“That was one of my favorite things, just getting a hammer and a nail and building a room for my horse from scraps of wood,” Toleu said. “I think that really inspired me to be an architect.”
Toleu immigrated to the U.S. primarily to pursue education in architecture. He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters, while his parents and extended relatives continue to live in a small village called Zhanaarka in central Kazakhstan.
When designing attractions or hotel rooms at Disneyland, Toleu said he sometimes draws inspiration from his childhood and Kazakhstan culture, which is reflected in the ornaments used for the Disneyland 70th Celebration Esplanade Pavilion, the castle sculpture where he served as the concept designer. He also designed the park’s Pixar Fest Esplanade Pavilion, as well as those giant traffic cones – the Radiator Springs Cozy Cone Motel Queue Expansion, inspired by the movie Cars.
Striking a balance between creating something distinct but tied to Disney is an important part of his work.
“A lot of my creativity and ideation comes from my background, my understanding and my perception of my world. I’ll try to bring that uniqueness to my art directors, and they share their knowledge and the Disney themes,” Toleu said. “There’s tons of research before any project. We look at the old Disney archives, old initial ideas. For each project, Disney writes a project description and codes – the main ideas and fundamentals that cannot be changed.”
“Based on that, we take the foundational knowledge and we try to build on that and expand and improve,” he added.
Toleu is a double Trojan, having earned his bachelor’s degree at the USC School of Architecture before studying at the USC Price School. Between degrees he went back to Kazakhstan and worked on big projects like the World Expo in 2017 and the Abu Dhabi Plaza, the tallest building in Central Asia. But after seeing so many projects fail due to a lack of socioeconomic research – such as a government-funded metro line that flopped – Toleu took an interest in urban planning.
Master of Urban Planning
Make Cities More Just, Livable & Sustainable
USC’s MUP degree trains students to improve the quality of life for urban residents and their communities worldwide.
Find Out MoreAs an MUP student at the USC Price School, he learned how data analytics can provide the foundation for major projects by answering important questions upfront, such as the demand for a project or potential economic benefits. He interned for NBCUniversal’s global real estate design team. The USC Price certificate in real estate development also combined architecture with finance skills, teaching him all that it takes to build a building.
“Learning that expanded my understanding of architectural design and urban planning,” Toleu said.
A month after graduating from USC Price, he landed an internship that turned into a full-time job at Disney. Like something out of a Disney movie, Toleu believes his daughter Mia had something to do with it.
“She found a dandelion and said, ‘Help my dad find a really cool job,’” Toleu said. “She blows on the flower and after that I got a job at Disneyland. We joke about it a lot. It was her wish.”
