Short version
K. Kypers has been a working professional in the animation industry since earning her BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2012. She’s been involved in a wide range of projects and assignments, like teaching clay animation to Girl Scouts, animating doodles for Post-it® Notes, and storyboarding for the pre-school NBC series Astroblast! Her short educational film for Amaze.org, Jim's Introduction to Gender Identity (a.k.a. My Friend Is Transgender) (written/directed by K) has earned recognition and accolades at national and international film festivals. K values dreams, empathy, and crude drawings.
Longer version
K. Kypers was raised in Vernon, NJ, a rural town known for its pastoral landscapes and infamous water park. After graduating from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2012, K spent a summer as the Artist-in-Residence at a Girl Scout camp in New Mexico, teaching troops of Girl Scouts to make short clay stop-motion films. Before the summer was over K was also given the responsibilities of the Arts Coordinator, keeping track of supplies and coming up with lessons for just about anything the girls were interested in: drawing horses, writing poetry, comic strips, etc.
Upon returning to her native New Jersey, K completed a personal project (Vaschel: Portrait of a Paper Bag) and began an internship at Little Airplane Productions in New York City. At Little Airplane K did digital design and animation assistance. It was during this time K started her Tumblr page, Dream Doodles on Sticky Notes (no longer regularly updated), where K illustrated/animated people’s dreams on sticky notes.
In 2013, K moved to Boston to accept a storyboarding job on one of the last shows that would be produced by Scholastic's Soup2Nuts studio, Astroblast! The technical and creative skills developed while working in a studio setting meeting deadlines for television would prove invaluable moving forward. When production on the series drew to a close by late 2014, K shifted her career to focus on finding work as a freelancer in the industry. To this day much of K’s freelance work can be attributed to connections made in Boston, frequently collaborating with Boston-area studios like FableVision, Hero4Hire Creative, and Shadow Lion.
One of the first projects K directed/animated as an independent contractor was a collection of short holiday-themed videos for Post-it® Notes social media (released between December 2014-May 2015). This came about after sharing her “sticky note” themed Tumblr page directly with 3M and the ad agency Zeus Jones.
After serving as an animator on Rachel Gitlevich's Boobs and More for Amaze.org (a short film about female puberty), K was selected to write/direct/animate a short film for Amaze about gender identity. Jim's Introduction to Gender Identity (published online as My Friend Is Transgender) has been featured in several national & international film festivals, including the Manchester Animation Festival 2017, the Merlinka International Queer Film Festival 2017, the Westfield International Film Festival 2018 (where it won for "Best Animated Short"), the Florida Animation Festival 2018 (where it won “1st Place - Mixed Media/Experimental”) and the ASIFA-East Animation Festival 2018 (where it earned a Craft Award for "Excellence in Education").
Following the success of K’s film, she has been invited to speak at a number of different venues both on the subject of animation as well as gender identity (sharing her own transgender experience).
K. Kypers currently resides in the greater NYC area. She is a frequent presence at the Milkweed Poetry Workshop which meets every Wednesday in Sugar Loaf, NY (or via Zoom throughout the pandemic). K has had poems and illustrations featured in each of the two publications from the workshop.