Kirsten Lepore is an American animator, best known for her

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

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 ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

'' entitled "

Bad Jubies "Bad Jubies" is the twentieth episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series ''Adventure Time''. The episode was written, storyboarded, and directed by Kirsten Lepore, and filmed entirely via stop motion. It originally ...

", serving as writer, storyboard artist, and director. The episode eventually aired on January 14, 2016 to critical acclaim.

Education

Lepore was raised in

South Brunswick, New Jersey South Brunswick is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The township is centrally located within the Raritan Valley region and is an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of th2020 Unit ...

. In an interview with ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'', Lepore explained that, as a child, she was fascinated by the animation techniques used by both

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and the

Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company (formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc.; commonly referred to as Henson) is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for ...

. Lepore attended South Brunswick High School, where she began to earnestly explore art, and as a young adult, she earned a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the U ...

, where she studied "experimental animation". Her undergraduate thesis was the short

film entitled "Sweet Dreams". Following college, she applied to studios and

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

d on the side, but she "never heard back from the studios, and the freelance work kept coming." 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. As a result, she attended

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bot ...

, graduating in 2012 with a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in experimental animation. Her graduate thesis, a short film entitled "Move Mountain", caught the attention of ''Adventure Time''

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

Adam Muto Adam Muto (born July 19, 1980) is an American writer, director, storyboard artist, animator, and producer known for his work as the executive producer and showrunner of the animated television series ''Adventure Time''. Career Muto was a classma ...

, and Lepore eventually guest-animated the episode "

Accolades

Lepore has won various awards, including a Student Annie Award, a

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

special jury award for animation, and an Annecy + award for best animation.

Selected filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lepore, Kirsten American animators American animated film directors American women film directors American women animators People from South Brunswick, New Jersey South Brunswick High School (New Jersey) alumni Stop motion animators California Institute of the Arts alumni Living people Maryland Institute College of Art alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women