Kohana Wilson (they/them) is a Japanese-English animator, director and educator. They were born and raised in Hong Kong, and currently live in Brooklyn, NY. They are a part-time lecturer in the Illustration department at the Parsons School of Design, where they teach animation and drawing classes.
Their animation practice involves a slow and iterative frame-by-frame hand-drawn process, often using pencil and paper with digital coloring. They enjoy presenting surreal worlds on a tilt, and playing with asymmetrical timing, elastic characters, and nonsense gravity. Through fragmented narratives, they create worlds that feel restless, dense and poetic, inspired by keen observations of the natural world.
They direct and animate a variety of commissioned projects, including music videos, documentaries, short films and commercials. Their previous clients include Adult Swim, Netflix, Blinkink, MoMA, Atlantic Records, and more. They’ve worked on EMMY-nominated and ANNIE-winning productions, and have recently created music videos for Coldplay, Florist, Flipturn and The Backseat Lovers. Their Academy Award long-listed film 'edith and the tall child' won Slamdance’s Grand Jury Prize for Animated Shorts, and has been screened internationally at festivals such as Fantoche, London International Animation Festival and Bitbang. They will participate in artist residencies including Yaddo and the Peaked Hill Trust in 2025.
They are always keen to work on new projects - feel free to reach out via email :)
Email: wilsonkohana@gmail.com
Instagram: @kohana.wilson
Vimeo: @Kohana Wilson