Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Jennifer Yuh Nelson (née Yuh; born May 7, 1972) is an 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 3, and The Darkest Minds. Yuh is the first woman to solely direct and the first Asian American to direct a major American animated film,[2] and has been recognized as a commercially successful Asian American director.[3]

Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Jennifer Yuh Nelson in May 2012 at the C2-MTL business conference
Born
Jennifer Yuh

(1972-05-07) May 7, 1972[1]
South Korea
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCalifornia State University, Long Beach
Occupation(s)Story artist, character designer, television director, illustrator, film director
Years active1994–present
Notable workKung Fu Panda 2
Kung Fu Panda 3
The Darkest Minds

She won an Annie Award for Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production for directing the opening for Kung Fu Panda and was the second woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, 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, she won Emmy Awards 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, Ridley Scott, and Katsuhiro Otomo. Yuh spent her childhood in Lakewood, California, where she enjoyed watching martial arts 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.[4] 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,[5] where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration.[6] 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."[4] Jennifer then followed her sisters into the animation industry, at first working as a cleanup artist at Jetlag Productions, where she worked on various direct-to-video features.[4] Following a brief stint at Hanna-Barbera Productions on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest for Cartoon Network,[7] she was later hired as a storyboard artist on HBO's Todd McFarlane's Spawn series in 1997.[8]

In 1998, Yuh joined DreamWorks Animation as a storyboard artist, where she worked on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and Madagascar. As a big fan of martial arts movies, she asked to work on the first Kung Fu Panda film, where she served as head of story and director of the opening hand-drawn dream sequence.[5] After the release of Kung Fu Panda, Jeffrey Katzenberg, DWA's CEO at the time, approached Yuh about directing Kung Fu Panda 2.[9] 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.[10] 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' 2017 film Wonder Woman. She eventually became the first woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film (since 2007's Persepolis) and to win the Annie Award for Best Directing in a Feature Production. Yuh returned to co-direct Kung Fu Panda 3 alongside Alessandro Carloni, which was released in 2016.[11] In July 2016, she was also added as one of the board of Governors by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[12]

In 2016, Yuh announced that would be making her live action directorial debut with an adaptation of Alexandra Bracken's The Darkest Minds for 20th Century Fox.[13] Producer Shawn Levy 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.[14]

In June 2019, Yuh was hired as supervising director of the second season of the Netflix animated anthology series, Love, Death & Robots.[15]

Filmography

Director

Film

Year Title Notes
2011 Kung Fu Panda 2
2016 Kung Fu Panda 3 Co-directed with Alessandro Carloni
2018 The Darkest Minds

Television

Year Title Episodes
1998–1999 Todd McFarlane's Spawn "Home, Bitter Home"
"Send in the KKKlowns"
"The Mindkiller"
"Hunter's Moon"
2021–present Love, Death & Robots "Pop Squad"
"Kill Team Kill"

Other credits

Film

Year Title Role
1998 Dark City Production illustrator/Story artist
2002 Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Story artist
2003 Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas Head of story
2005 Madagascar Story artist
2008 Kung Fu Panda Head of story
2019 How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Additional story artist

Television

Year Title Role
1997 Real Adventures of Jonny Quest Character designer, background artist, storyboard artist
Extreme Ghostbusters Storyboard artist
1997–1999 Todd McFarlane's Spawn Storyboard artist and character designer
1998 Spicy City Head of story, visual effects
2008 HBO First Look Herself
2012 IC Places Hollywood
2016 Tavis Smiley
2018 Kore Conversations
2021–present Love, Death & Robots Supervising director

Direct-to-video

Year Title Role
1994 Cinderella Assistant designer
1994 Happy, the Littlest Bunny
Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle
A Christmas Carol
1995 Alice in Wonderland
Magic Gift of the Snowman
Jungle Book
Heidi
2003 Sinbad and the Cyclops Island Story writer
2008 Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five Storyboard artist

Awards and nominations

References
  1. "Yuh, Jennifer". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  2. Yuh Nelson, Jennifer. "TIME Firsts Women Leaders: Jennifer Yuh Nelson". Time. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
  3. Kim, Elaine H. (2017). "Overcoming barriers to representation". The Routledge Companion to Asian American Media. Taylor & Francis. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-317-54084-7.
  4. "JENNIFER YUH NELSON • DREAMWORKS". WomenWorthWatching.com. April 18, 2011. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
  5. Hulett, Steve (January 23, 2012). "The Jennifer Yuh Nelson Interview -- Part I". The Animation Guild Blog. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  6. Sperling, Nicole (May 25, 2011). "Tough enough". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 30, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
  7. Inoa, Christopher (August 14, 2018). "Darkest Minds director Jennifer Yuh Nelson is a quiet force making history in Hollywood". Syfy Wire. NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Archived from the original on August 5, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
  8. Nusair, David. "Jennifer Yuh Bio". About.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  9. "Interview with KUNG FU PANDA 2 Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson". CineMovie.tv. May 31, 2011. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
  10. "Q&A with Jennifer Yuh Nelson". CAAM. January 25, 2016. Archived from the original on February 5, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  11. Young, John (August 29, 2011). "'Kung Fu Panda 2' becomes highest-grossing film directed by a woman". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 10, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  12. "Academy Appoints Jennifer Yuh Nelson Governor At Large". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on December 24, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  13. Nordine, Michael (July 12, 2016). "'Darkest Minds': Jennifer Yuh Nelson of 'Kung Fu Panda' to Make Live-Action Directorial Debut with Ya Adaptation". Indiewire. Archived from the original on July 13, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  14. Barker, Andrew (July 26, 2018). "Billion Dollar Filmmaker: Jennifer Yuh Nelson Moves From Toontown to 'Darkest' Side". Variety. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  15. Maas, Jennifer (June 10, 2019). "'Love, Death and Robots' Renewed at Netflix, Adds 'Kung Fu Panda 3' Director". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 12, 2019. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
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