Andrea's formative education began as a child growing up in Rome—drawing, painting, and sculpting—under the tutelage of his father Aldo Favilli, a motion picture art director at Cinecittà Studios. His formal studies in design were at Art Center College of Design, where he graduated with honors in 1986. Andrea was recruited by Martin "Marty" Sklar to work at Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) as a lead concept designer, and had the good fortune to work alongside various legendary Disney artists, including Joe Rohde, Harper Goff, Ken Anderson and Claude Coats; and was mentored by the venerable Herbert Dickens Ryman, and master show producer Robert Jani, who helped shape his philosophy on creativity, storytelling, design and showmanship. During his time at WDI, Andrea contributed to a slate of projects around the world including Disneyland, The Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Typhoon Lagoon, the Walt Disney Studios, Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland. In 1992 Andrea established Favilli Studio (FS) and built it into a premiere entertainment design company, working on projects in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Notable clients included: The Walt Disney Company, Mattel Toys, Will Vinton Productions, The World Economic Forum, Walt Disney Imagineering, Roy E. Disney, Shamrock Holdings, WATG, Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood Resorts & Hotels, Gensler, Sol Kerzner (Sun International), The Sands Group (Venetian Las Vegas & Macao), The Jack Morton Company, Universal Creative, Bass Pro Shops, Cinecitta Studios, Snowbird Ski Resort, Huai'an's Journey To The West, Changzhou Dinosaur Kingdom, WANDA (Nanchang, Harbin and Wuhan), Jinhu Yao Cultural Resort, Huayi Brothers—Jianye Cultural Tourism Holdings, Zhonghong Holdings (Beijing), Seyhan-Lee and AECOM. The fuel for Andrea’s creativity is his love of the outdoors, ultra-running, aviation and an adventurous spirit that has taken him up many mountains on five continents and spurred his quest to climb the Seven Summits. He has summited five to date in Africa, Russia, South America, North America, and Antarctica.