Karyn Kusama

Karyn Kiyoko Kusama (born March 21, 1968) is an American filmmaker.

In 1990, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film & Television from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

One of her professors at NYU, Carol Dysinger, admired her work and loved the way she told her story through filmmaking.

Her jobs before making it big in the film industry varied from nannying, house painting, editing, and working with the production of independent films/ music videos.

In 1992, after partnering with John Sayles as an assistant, she joined Gleason's Gym in Dumbo, Brooklyn where she started boxing.

In 1992, Kusama started boxing at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, training with Hector Roca.

She began collecting ideas for Girlfight, but didn't start writing it until two years later.

At age 31, Kusama wrote and directed her debut feature, Girlfight.

It took several years to find financing for the film, reportedly due to her insistence that the main character be a Latina rather than allowing the film to become a vehicle for a well-known white actress.

After financing fell through shortly before shooting began, Girlfight was partially financed by filmmaker John Sayles, for whom she worked as an assistant at the time and who served as a mentor.

She made her feature directorial debut with the sports drama film Girlfight (2000), for which she won Best Director and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

She used the fact that she was one of the few female boxers as inspiration for the film, "Girlfight" in 2000.

She trained with a well known Spanish trainer, Hector Roca.

After graduating from NYU, where she won a Mobil Prize for a student film called Sleeping Beauties, Kusama worked as an editor on documentary films, in production on independent film and music videos, as a nanny, and painting houses.

Through her nanny job she met filmmaker John Sayles and worked as his assistant for three years while he was making the film Lone Star, as well as the development of his films Men with Guns and Limbo.

While working for Sayles, she continued to write screenplays.

The film was released in 2000 and won the Director's Prize and shared the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival.

With a budget of around US$1 million was critically well received.

However, it brought in only US$1,667,000, which was considered a poor return.

Despite this, the film launched the career of Michelle Rodriguez, who had no previous acting roles prior to being cast in Girlfight.

Kusama went on to direct the science fiction action film Æon Flux (2005), based on the animated series of the same name created by Peter Chung, and the horror comedy film Jennifer's Body (2009).

In 2005, Kusama directed her second film, Æon Flux, a Paramount Pictures studio production that starred Charlize Theron and had a budget of US$62,000,000.

The film had been ushered through production by Paramount studio chief Sherry Lansing but during production Lansing left, which resulted in the film being recut and reworked, with significant changes from Kusama's original vision.

Following this experience, Kusama said she would never again work on a film in which she doesn't have control of the final cut.

The film was largely panned by critics and grossed $52 million worldwide, putting Kusama's career on ice for years afterwards.

In 2009, Kusama directed the horror film Jennifer's Body, which was written by Diablo Cody and starred Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried in the lead roles.

The film grossed approximately US$31,000,000 on a budget of around US$16,000,000.

Despite its box office success, the film received mixed reviews from critics upon its release but has since become a cult classic.

The film was critically reassessed over time as a "forgotten feminist classic".

According to Cody, the film was marketed incorrectly by executives who focused their efforts on the young male audience.

After working extensively in television, Kusama directed the horror film The Invitation (2015), a segment in the horror anthology film XX (2017), and the crime drama film Destroyer (2018).

Kusama currently serves as an executive producer on the Showtime survival horror thriller series Yellowjackets (2021–present), for which she was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Kusama was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Haruo Kusama, a Japanese child psychiatrist.

He immigrated from Japan and attended the medical school of Washington University.

Kusama's mother, Susan McGuire, was an occupational therapist.

She is of Scottish-Irish descent.

Her father is Japanese American and her mother is Scots-Irish-American.

Karyn grew up highly invested in the film industry and watching movies, she used it as an outlet to help her feel seen.

Her love for filmmaking grew from the female directors, Martha Coolidge and Amy Heckerling, Directors of Valley Girl and Fast Time.

She graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis.