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, Yoko 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 loves to bring these original visions to life as a writer/director but also gains tremendous joy helping to bring the creative vision of showrunners and writers to life. Yoko Okumura most recently directed and co-storied the “Ball of Twine” episodes of the Sam Raimi horror anthology 50 STATES OF FRIGHT on Quibi, starring Ming-Na Wen (AGENTS OF SHIELD) and Karen Allen (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK). She is attached to several feature film projects as a director while stepping into episodic directing as well. Her short, KIMI KABUKI, received a DGA Student Film Award, the Panavision New Filmmakers Award, and an Austin Film Festival Jury Award. Her directing clients have included Lifetime/A&E's scripted digital series FALL INTO ME, Super Deluxe’s TURNT BEAUTY series and Uproxxx UNCHARTED series. Branded clients have included Cover Girl, Honda and Instagram. She is an alum of the Ryan Murphy Half Initiative, The Fox Directing Program, and WIF/Sundance Financing Intensive. She also shadowed showrunner/director Peter Paige on the Freeform series GOOD TROUBLE. Yoko graduated from the Calarts Film/Video program and the AFI Directing Program. Outside of filmmaking, Yoko loves fire dancing and aerial arts.