Yoko Okumura

Yoko Okumura is a genre-fluid writer, director, and performer. Born in a Buddhist temple in Japan and raised in the frostbite of Minneapolis, she now lives and works in Los Angeles. She is obsessed with telling rebellious stories through underrepresented perspectives and thrives in the intersection of grit and glamour.

Yoko sold a story pitch to Sam Raimi's Quibi horror anthology "50 States of Fright" and is directing the episode titled "America's Largest Ball of Twine" starring Ming-Na Wen and Karen Allen. Her directing clients have included Lifetime/A&E's scripted digital series "Fall Into Me", Super Deluxe's "Turnt Beauty" series and Uproxxx's "Uncharted" series. Branded clients have included Cover Girl, Honda, and Instagram.

Yoko's feature film project "The Religion of Girlfriends" was accepted into the WIF/Sundance Institute Financing Intensive. Her short, "Kimi Kabuki", received a DGA Student Film Award, the Panavision New Filmmakers Award, and an Austin Film Festival Jury Award. Yoko is also co-creator of digital series "Facets", an episodic documentary about trailblazing women who have carved unique life paths for themselves. Her various doc work has been selected for the Vimeo Staff Pick three times.

Yoko has a BFA in Film/Video from Calarts and an MFA in Film Directing from the American Film Institute. When not working in media arts Yoko dabbles in fire dancing and aerial arts, and would love to learn how to do a back flip.