Kim Irvine (born Kim Thomas) is an Imagineer for The Walt Disney Company since 1970 and is currently Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering. While best known for her work on the The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, she worked on the 2021 refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland Park. She also appears as a maid in Muppets Haunted Mansion.[1]
Irvine was born into Disney: Her parents, Harvey and Leota Toombs, were Disney animators who had their first date at the Pinocchio premiere. Irvine’s mother later worked for WED Enterprises, the arm that creates attractions, now Walt Disney Imagineering. When Irvine graduated from high school in 1970, she planned to go to art school. But her mother suggested that Irvine first take a summer job at WED. There, she worked at the model shop where she was making hats for bears, putting feathers in Tiki birds, and painting mock-ups. By 1978, was set up with another employee to run an office branch that oversaw maintenance of the original park.
Since then, Irvine led major projects to decorate Sleeping Beauty Castle in 2005 for the 50th anniversary, design the Disney Dream Suite in 2008, added Disney characters and outlining their costumes to the It's a Small World ride in 2009, updated scenes along Rivers of America with new animal figures, and created trash cans to fit in with the lands and renovated vending carts at least twice. She also served as a model and narrator for a special holiday makeover for The Haunted Mansion. Her mother's image, whom was the original model for Madame Leota, was projected on Irvine's model inside the ball.
In 2011, she was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Themed Entertainment Association.
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- Her older sister, Launie Lee Toombs, is a paralegal as well as freelance artist.