Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises. It is one of four major business segments of the company, the other three being Consumer Products, Media Networks, and Studio Entertainment.

The Parks and Resorts division was founded in 1971 as Walt Disney Attractions when Disney's second theme park, Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, opened, joining the original Disneyland in California. The chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is Thomas O. Staggs, formerly the senior executive vice president and CFO. Staggs reports to Disney CEO Robert Iger.

In 2009, the company's theme parks hosted approximately 119.1 million guests, making Disney Parks the world's most visited theme park company, ahead of the second most visited, British rival Merlin Entertainments.

Disneyland was dedicated as a single park by Walt Disney on July 17, 1955. Disneyland Park opened to the public on July 18, 1955, in Anaheim, California. Disneyland Hotel opened to the public on October 5, 1955.

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O. Disney, he was co-founder of Walt Disney Productions, which later became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation is now known as The Walt Disney Company and had an annual revenue of approximately US$36 billion in the 2010 financial year.

Disney is particularly noted as a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, for whom Disney himself provided the original voice. During his lifetime he received four honorary Academy Awards and won 22 Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual in history. Disney also won seven Emmy Awards and gave his name to the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the U.S., as well as the international resorts Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz ( /ˈliːbəvɪts/; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer.

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's parents had emigrated from Romania. Her mother, Marilyn Leibovitz, was a modern dance instructor of Estonian Jewish heritage; her father, Sam Leibovitz, was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. The family moved frequently with her father's duty assignments, and she took her first pictures when she was stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War.

In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavors, and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while working various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Amir, Israel, for several months in 1969.

Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981) is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol, coming in seventh place. She made her film debut in the 2006 film Dreamgirls, which won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

She won a Grammy Award for her eponymous debut album, Jennifer Hudson, which was released in 2008 on Arista Records and was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over 800,000 copies in the US; sales exceeded 1 million copies worldwide. Additionally, it spawned the hit single Spotlight. Her second album, I Remember Me, was released in March 2011, and reached number two on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in its first week of release. The album was certified gold by the RIAA, for shipping over 500,000 copies in the US.

In late 2008, after Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were killed in a shooting, Hudson stepped out of the limelight for three months. Hudson resumed her public appearances in 2009, and has since performed at the Super Bowl XLIII, the Grammy Awards, American Idol, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Hudson has been described as a friend of President Barack Obama, who invited her to appear with him at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills in May 2009. She also performed at the White House at the "Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement" event. Her vocal range is mezzo-soprano. Hudson has sold 1,280,000 albums and 2,237,000 tracks in the United States as of February 2012.

Tiana is the main protagonist of Disney's 2009 film The Princess and the Frog which is loosely based on the 2002 novel The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker. At the start of the movie she is a waitress and aspiring restaurateur living in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the Jazz Age. She is voiced by Anika Noni Rose and is the ninth princess in the Disney Princess franchise.

Tiana is the first African American princess in the Disney Princess franchise and the second American after Pocahontas. Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta stated "Tiana will be a heroine in the great tradition of Disney’s rich animated fairy tale legacy, and all other characters and aspects of the story will be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity."

It was reported that a group of different great women wanted the role of Tiana. In February 2007 it was reported that Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose were top contenders for the voice of Tiana, and that Alicia Keys directly contacted Disney's studio chief Dick Cook, telling him that she wanted the role very much. It was later revealed that Tyra Banks was considered for the role as well. On April 19, 2007, it was confirmed that Anika Noni Rose would be voicing the outgoing Princess Tiana.