Karyn Kiyoko Kusama (born March 21, 1968) is an American filmmaker.
She made her directorial and writing feature film debut with the
acclaimed sports drama Girlfight (2000), for which received a
nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First
Feature.Kusama went on to direct the science fiction action film Æon
Flux (2005), based on Peter Chung's animated series of the same name,
and the cult horror comedy film Jennifer's Body (2009). After working
extensively as a television director, Kusama directed the horror film
The Invitation (2015), a segment in the all-female horror anthology
film XX (2017), and the Nicole Kidman-starring crime thriller film
Destroyer (2018).Among her numerous accolades, Kusama has received
awards from the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.
She has been married to screenwriter Phil Hay since 2006, with whom
she shares a son. Hay has co-written three of her films with his
writing partner Matt Manfredi.Kusama was born in St. Louis,
Missouri,:264, 266 the daughter of Haruo Kusama, a Japanese child
psychiatrist and Susan McGuire, an Midwestern educational
psychiatrist. She graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in
St. Louis, and in 1990, she earned a BFA in Film & TV from New York
University's Tisch School of the Arts.
She made her directorial and writing feature film debut with the
acclaimed sports drama Girlfight (2000), for which received a
nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First
Feature.Kusama went on to direct the science fiction action film Æon
Flux (2005), based on Peter Chung's animated series of the same name,
and the cult horror comedy film Jennifer's Body (2009). After working
extensively as a television director, Kusama directed the horror film
The Invitation (2015), a segment in the all-female horror anthology
film XX (2017), and the Nicole Kidman-starring crime thriller film
Destroyer (2018).Among her numerous accolades, Kusama has received
awards from the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.
She has been married to screenwriter Phil Hay since 2006, with whom
she shares a son. Hay has co-written three of her films with his
writing partner Matt Manfredi.Kusama was born in St. Louis,
Missouri,:264, 266 the daughter of Haruo Kusama, a Japanese child
psychiatrist and Susan McGuire, an Midwestern educational
psychiatrist. She graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in
St. Louis, and in 1990, she earned a BFA in Film & TV from New York
University's Tisch School of the Arts.
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