Peterson's early career as an artist started when he was a mechanical engineering student at
Ohio Northern University (1979-1983) and then as a graduate student at
Purdue University (1983-1986). At Ohio Northern, Peterson drew a weekly cartoon "For Pete's Sake". At Purdue, Peterson drew the cartoon "Loco Motives" for the Purdue student newspaper, the
Purdue Exponent. Prior to his graduation from Purdue in December 1986, the Exponent published "Loco Motives: Boilercoaster 84-86, The Best of the Purdue Exponent's Loco Motives Cartoon", a paper-back collection of Peterson's cartoons. In October 1986 Peterson autographed copies at a book-signing event in the
Purdue Memorial Union. At least one copy of the book is known to have original, signed artwork inside the book cover which was drawn by Peterson during the book-signing. Peterson has also voiced characters for various Pixar projects such as Geri in the short ''
Geri's Game (1997), Roz in Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013), Mr. Ray in Finding Nemo (2003) and Finding Dory (2016), and Dug and Alpha in Up (2009). His most recent vocal work was Dug and Alpha in the short Carl's Date (2023). Peterson also voiced Chick Hicks in Cars 3'' since Chick's original voice actor
Michael Keaton was unavailable to reprise the role. Peterson conceived Pixar's
The Good Dinosaur (2015) and served as the film's director until exiting the project in August 2013. He created, wrote, and directed two short-form series:
Forky Asks a Question (2019–20) and
Dug Days (2021–23). In August 2015, Peterson voiced a dog named Derby for an
E:60 profile on
ESPN that chronicled the
Trenton Thunder's minor league baseball team's tradition of using bat dogs. ==Filmography==