Kirsten Lepore

Kirsten Lepore
Kirsten Lepore
Nationality	American
Known for	Animation, stop motion
Spouse(s)	Daniel Kwan; (m. 2016)
Children	1

Kirsten Lepore is an American animator, best known for her stop motion short films like "Sweet Dreams", "Bottle", and "Move Mountain". From 2014 to 2015, she worked on an episode of the American cartoon series Adventure Time entitled "Bad Jubies", serving as writer, storyboard artist, and director. The episode eventually aired on January 14, 2016 to critical acclaim.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Education

Lepore was raised in South Brunswick, New Jersey.^[4] In an interview with The A.V. Club, Lepore explained that, as a child, she was fascinated by the animation techniques used by both Disney and the Jim Henson Company.^[5] Lepore attended South Brunswick High School,^[4] where she began to earnestly explore art, and as a young adult, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art, where she studied "experimental animation". Her undergraduate thesis was the short stop motion film entitled "Sweet Dreams".^[5]^[6] Following college, she applied to studios and freelanced on the side, but she "never heard back from the studios, and the freelance work kept coming."^[6] She returned to her parents' house and began working on ads and small production projects. During this phase in her life, she felt that she did not have enough technical expertise.^[5] As a result, she attended CalArts, graduating in 2012 with a Master of Fine Arts in experimental animation.^[5]^[7] Her graduate thesis, a short film entitled "Move Mountain", caught the attention of Adventure Time showrunner Adam Muto, and Lepore eventually guest-animated the episode "Bad Jubies".^[5]^[8]

Accolades

Lepore has won various awards, including a Student Annie Award, a South by Southwest special jury award for animation, and an Annecy + award for best animation.^[9]

Personal life

Lepore has been married to fellow filmmaker and animator Daniel Kwan since 2016, and together they have one son.^[10]^[11]

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Description	Role
2007	"Story from North America"	Short film	Director, animator
2008	"Sweet Dreams"	Short film, BFA thesis	Writer, director
2011	"Bottle"	Short film	Writer, director
2013	"Move Mountain"	Short film, MFA thesis	Writer, director
2014–15	"Bad Jubies"	Adventure Time episode	Writer, storyboard artist, director
2016	"Hi Stranger"	Short film	Writer, director, animator
2018	"It's My Party"	Summer Camp Island episode	Writer, storyboard artist
2021	Marcel the Shell with Shoes On	Film	Animation director^[12]
2022	Everything Everywhere All At Once	Film	Visual effects artist^[4]
2022–present	I Am Groot	Short film series	Writer, director, executive producer^[13]