Jennifer Yuh Nelson ( Yuh; born May 7, 1972) is a South Korean-born American story artist, character designer, television director, illustrator, and film director. She is best known for directing the films ''

Kung Fu Panda 2 ''Kung Fu Panda 2'' is a 2011 American computer-animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is the sequel to ''Kung Fu Panda'' (2008) and the second installment in the ''Ku ...

'', ''

Kung Fu Panda 3 ''Kung Fu Panda 3'' is a 2016 computer-animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the third installment in the ''Kung Fu Panda'' franchise and the sequel to ''Kung Fu Panda 2' ...

'', and ''

The Darkest Minds ''The Darkest Minds'' is a 2018 American dystopian science fiction film directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and written by Chad Hodge. Based on Alexandra Bracken's 2012 young adult novel of the same name, it was produced by Shawn Levy and Dan Levine. ...

''. Yuh is the first woman to solely direct and the first

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

to direct a major American animated film, and has been recognized as a commercially successful Asian American director. She won an

Annie Award The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally desi ...

for Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production for directing the opening for ''

Kung Fu Panda ''Kung Fu Panda'' is an American media franchise that originally started in 2008 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, produced by DreamWorks Animation. Following the adventures of the titular Po Ping (primarily voic ...

'' and was the second woman nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for animated films. An animated feature is defined by the Academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by- ...

, for her work on ''Kung Fu Panda 2''. The film proved to be one of the most financially successful films directed by a woman. As a supervisor director for her work on ''

Love, Death & Robots ''Love, Death & Robots'' (stylized as ''LOVE DEATH + R⬮BOTS'', and represented in emoji form as ❤️❌🤖) is an adult animated anthology streaming television series created by Tim Miller and streaming on Netflix. Produced by Blur Studio ...

'', she won

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

two consecutive times.

Biography

Yuh was born in 1972 in South Korea and immigrated to the United States with her parents and two sisters when she was four years old. She started sketching and drawing at a young age, while developing an interest with 80s action movies and anime. Her favorite filmmakers were

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...

, and

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of '' Akira'', in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of th ...

. Yuh spent her childhood in

Lakewood, California Lakewood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 80,048 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is bordered by Long Beach on the west and south, Bellflower, California, Bellflower on the north, C ...

, where she enjoyed watching

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

movies, playing with cars, and drawing. "I have been drawing since age 3 and making movies in my head for almost as long. In fact, drawing for me was a way to express those films when I had no other means of doing so," said Yuh. As a young girl, she would sit at the kitchen table for hours and watch her mother draw, copying her every stroke. As a kid, she would fancy stories with her sisters and was learning to draw to get down those stories. Yuh traces the lineage of her career to those formative family experiences. Interested in art, Yuh followed her sisters to

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. There she got introduced to animation, "When I was in college years later, a veteran storyboard artist came to talk to my class. He showed us how he drew movies for a living. My mind exploded. And that led to a career in animation." Jennifer then followed her sisters into the animation industry, at first working as a cleanup artist at

Jetlag Productions Jetlag Productions was an American animation studio that, like the similar studio Golden Films, has created a number of animated films based on different, popular children's stories, while creating a few original productions. Produced mainly for t ...

, where she worked on various direct-to-video features. Following a brief stint at

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

Productions on ''

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest ''The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest'' (also known as ''Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures'') is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera and broadcast on Cartoon Network from August 26, 1996, to April 16, 1997. A continua ...

'' for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

, she was later hired as a storyboard artist on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's ''

Todd McFarlane's Spawn ''Todd McFarlane's Spawn'', also known as ''Spawn: The Animated Series'' or simply ''Spawn'' is an American adult animated superhero television series that aired on HBO from 1997 through 1999 and reran on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming blo ...

'' series in 1997. In 1998, Yuh joined

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...

as a storyboard artist, where she worked on '' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'', '' Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas'', and ''

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

''. As a big fan of martial arts movies, she asked to work on the first ''

'' film, where she served as head of story and director of the opening hand-drawn dream sequence. After the release of ''Kung Fu Panda'',

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and CE ...

, DWA's CEO at the time, approached Yuh about directing ''

''. Although she hadn't expressed interest in directing the sequel to the film, Producer Melissa Cobb stated that she should direct the second one due to her excellent work on the first, to which the rest of the crew supported the decision. The film proved a major critical and international box office success with a worldwide gross of $665.6 million, making it the highest-grossing film ever directed by a woman until director Jennifer Lee's '' Frozen'' two years later. She held the record for highest-grossing film by a solo female director until the release of

Patty Jenkins Patricia Lea Jenkins (born July 24, 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. She has directed the feature films ''Monster'' (2003), ''Wonder Woman'' (2017), and ''Wonder Woman 1984'' (2020). For the film ''Monster'', she w ...

' 2017 film ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...

''. She eventually became the first woman to be nominated for the

Film (since 2007's ''

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'') and to win the Annie Award for Best Directing in a Feature Production. Yuh returned to co-direct ''

'' alongside

Alessandro Carloni Alessandro Carloni is an Italian film director, animator, and art director, best known for his work with DreamWorks Animation in general, particularly the ''Kung Fu Panda'' films. He co-directed ''Kung Fu Panda 3'', alongside Jennifer Yuh Nelson ...

, which was released in 2016. In July 2016, she was also added as one of the board of Governors by

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

. In 2016, Yuh announced that would be making her live action directorial debut with an adaptation of

Alexandra Bracken Alexandra Bracken (born 27 February 1987) is a The New York Times Best Seller list, #1 ''New York Times'' bestselling American author known for ''The Darkest Minds'' series and ''Passenger'' series. Early life Alexandra Bracken was born in Phoeni ...

's ''

'' for

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. Producer

Shawn Levy Shawn Adam Levy (born July 23, 1968) is a Canadian film director, film producer, actor, and founder of 21 Laps Entertainment. He has worked across genres and is perhaps best known as the director of the ''Night at the Museum'' film franchise an ...

praised Jennifer for her visual sensibility as well as her natural narrative qualities. She described herself as soft-spoken, contrary to what contemporary directors are often personified as; instead, she used storyboards to help pitch her ideas to Shawn Levy and 21 Laps. In June 2019, Yuh was hired as supervising director of the second season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

animated anthology series, ''

''.

Filmography

Director

Film Television

Other credits

Film Television Direct-to-video

Awards and nominations

* Annie Award for Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production at 36th Annie Awards * Annie Award for Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production at 39th Annie Awards * Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming More Than One Hour) at

51st Primetime Emmy Awards The 51st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 12, 1999. The ceremony show was hosted by Jenna Elfman and David Hyde Pierce. It was broadcast on Fox. The comedy-drama '' Ally McBeal'' won Outstanding Comedy Series, which not onl ...

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually beginning in 2008 to an animated series or special of 15 minutes or shorter in length. In 2008 and 2009, the category was ca ...

73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards The 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards honored the best in artistic and technical achievement in United States, American prime time television programming from June 1, 2020, until May 31, 2021, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts ...

74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards The 74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards honored the best in artistic and technical achievement in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2021, until May 31, 2022, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ...

* Maverick Award at 2011 LA Femme International Film Festival *Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature *

KoreAm ''KoreAm,'' or ''KoreAm Journal,'' was a monthly print magazine dedicated to news, commentary, politics, lifestyle and culture published in the United States. It was the oldest and most widely circulated English language, English-language monthly ...

Award for Director of the Year

References

External links

* *
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
on the Animation Guild {{DEFAULTSORT:Yuh Nelson, Jennifer 1972 births Living people American film directors of Korean descent American storyboard artists American women film directors American animated film directors American women animators Annie Award winners Artists from California Background artists California State University, Long Beach alumni DreamWorks Animation people Hanna-Barbera people Film directors from California People from Lakewood, California Primetime Emmy Award winners South Korean emigrants to the United States South Korean women film directors South Korean women animators South Korean storyboard artists