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.
Education
Lepore was raised in
South Brunswick, New Jersey.
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.
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 ...
at
Maryland Institute College of Art, where she studied "experimental animation". Her undergraduate thesis was the short
stop motion 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, 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, and Lepore eventually guest-animated the episode "
Bad Jubies".
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
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{{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