Jennifer Yuh Nelson

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
Residence United States
Education Bachelor of Fine Arts
Alma mater California State University, Long Beach
Occupation Director, storyboard artist
Years active 1994-present
Employer DreamWorks Animation
Notable work Kung Fu Panda 2

Jennifer Yuh Nelson, also known as Jennifer Yuh (born May 7, 1972), is an American director and storyboard artist. She is best known for her directorial debut Kung Fu Panda 2. Yuh is the first woman to solely direct an animated feature from a major Hollywood studio.[2]

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. After the film proved to be one of the most financially successful films directed by a woman, Yuh returned to direct Kung Fu Panda 3, released on January 29, 2016.

Biography and work

Yuh was born in 1972 in South Korea and immigrated to the United States with her parents and two sisters when she was 4 years old. 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.[3] 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,[4] where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration.[2] 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."[3] Jennifer then followed her sisters into an animation business - at first as a cleanup artist at Jetlag Productions, where she worked on various direct-to-video features.[3] In 1997, she got hired as a storyboard artist on HBO's Todd McFarlane's Spawn series.[5]

In 1998, Yuh joined DreamWorks Animation as a storyboard artist, while her sister, Catherine Yuh Rader,[6] also a storyboard artist, had joined DWA owned PDI. Jennifer worked then 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 was a head of story, and directed the hand-drawn dream sequence.[4] After the release of Kung Fu Panda, Jeffrey Katzenberg, DWA's CEO, approached Yuh about directing Kung Fu Panda 2.[7] Although she hadn't expressed interest in directing the animated movie, the movie's producers felt that she was the right choice for the job. 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 still holds the record for highest-grossing film by a solo female director. 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. Jennifer returned for Kung Fu Panda 3, which was released in 2016 and was the first American animated film to ever been co-produced with a Chinese firm.[8]

It was announced in 2016 that Yuh will be making her live action directorial debut for The Darkest Minds.[9]

Filmography

Feature films

Year Title Role Notes
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
Annie Award for Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
2011 Kung Fu Panda 2 director
Annie Award for Best Directing in a Feature Production
2016 Kung Fu Panda 3[10] director

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1997 Real Adventures of Jonny Quest Character Designer, Character Design, Background Artist, Storyboard Artist
1998 Spicy City Head of Stories, Visual Effects
1999 Todd McFarlane's Spawn Director, Storyboard Artist

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Yuh, Jennifer". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Sperling, Nicole (May 25, 2011). "Tough enough". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 "JENNIFER YUH NELSON • DREAMWORKS". WomenWorthWatching.com. 2011-04-18. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  4. 1 2 Hulett, Steve (January 23, 2012). "The Jennifer Yuh Nelson Interview -- Part I". The Animation Guild Blog. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  5. ↑ Nusair, David. "Jennifer Yuh Bio". About.com. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Catherine Yuh". IMDb. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Interview with KUNG FU PANDA 2 Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson". CineMovie.tv. 2011-05-31. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  8. ↑ Young, John (August 29, 2011). "'Kung Fu Panda 2' becomes highest-grossing film directed by a woman". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  9. ↑ Nordine, Michael (July 12, 2016). "'Darkest Minds': Jennifer Yuh Nelson of 'Kung Fu Panda' to Make Live-Action Directorial Debut with Ya Adaptation". Indiewire.
  10. ↑ DreamWorks Animation (September 9, 2012). "New Distributor Twentieth Century Fox Unveils DreamWorks Animation's Release Slate Through 2016". DreamWorks Animation. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
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