Photo: Kevin Paul / CC BY 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Karyn Kusama is a filmmaker I think deserves more mainstream credit than she gets. Winning both Best Director and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2000 for her debut, Girlfight, is a staggering opening statement, and the fact that she came out of NYU's Tisch program with that kind of confidence says a lot. What I admire is her range across film and television and her willingness to work in tougher, less commercial genre territory. She's the sort of director whose name I trust on a project even when the premise sounds risky. A genuine original voice in American cinema.
Overview
Karyn Kiyoko Kusama (born March 21, 1968) is an American filmmaker. 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.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Karyn Kusama
- Name (Japanese)
- カリン・クサマ
- Reading
- かりん・くさま
- Born
- March 21, 1968 (age 58)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aries / Monkey
- Origin
- Brooklyn, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- film director / screenwriter / television director / film producer / director
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Ladue Horton Watkins High School
- University
- New York University Tisch School of the Arts
Awards & achievements
- 2000 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award
- 2000 Open Palm Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Film director — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.