About

Emily Dean is an Asian-Australian writer, director, and artist living in LA.

Emily recently served as director on LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS, Volume 3, Netflix’s Emmy award winning R-rated animated series. Her episode, THE VERY PULSE OF THE MACHINE, starring Mackenzie Davis, was written by Philip Gelatt based on the Hugo award winning short story by Michael Swanwick. Emily received the Annie Award for Best Storyboarding TV/Media in 2023 for The Very Pulse of the Machine.

Emily currently writes, directs and executive produces content for film and television under her production banner, Grade 8 Productions.

Emily holds a BA (Honours I), History and English Major, from the University of Sydney and following her academic studies pursued Animation at the Australian Film Television Radio School (AFTRS) and at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). After training at Pixar in the Story Department, Emily worked as a Feature Story Artist and Visual Consultant for Warner Bros and Animal Logic on films such as THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2017), THE LEGO MOVIE 2 (2019); Lionsgate’s sci fi thriller HOTEL ARTEMIS (2019) starring Jodie Foster; and on Sony Picture Animation’s Oscar Award winning HAIRLOVE (2019) from creator/director Matthew A. Cherry. IMDB

In 2012 Emily’s animated short film FORGET ME NOT was nominated for an Australian Academy Award (AACTA), and in 2018 her first live action sci fi short film ANDROMEDA played and was awarded at numerous genre fests and is now available on the sci-fi platform Dust. In 2019 Emily was awarded Variety Magazine’s ‘Top 10 Animators To Watch’, and in 2021 was named one of Piaget’s ‘Extraordinary Women’. Emily is currently serving a term on the inaugural Alumni Advisory Group for the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) for 2022-2023.

Emily is currently a Director on the talent-roster of Nexus Studios for commercial representation, and is represented in features, television, and literary material by Verve and managed by Brillstein Entertainment Partners.