Biography

Fumi Kitahara has worked in entertainment publicity and marketing for over 20 years, starting her career at Walt Disney Studios in the early '90s. From there she moved to DreamWorks SKG, where she had the unique opportunity of heading up her own department during the inception of the company.

As vice president of animation publicity at DreamWorks, she was instrumental in launching such acclaimed Academy Award®-winning films as Shrek and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, as well as the hit films, The Prince of Egypt, Chicken Run, Shrek 2, Madagascar and Over the Hedge.

In 2007, Fumi left DreamWorks to open her own boutique public relations firm, the pr kitchen. Working as a consultant, Fumi contributed to the publicity and awards campaigns for such Academy Award®-nominated films as Coraline, How to Train Your Dragon, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Shaun the Sheep Movie. She has also worked on several Oscar®-nominated animated short films, such as French Roast, The Gruffalo, A Morning Stroll, Adam and Dog, Room on the Broom, Possessions and The Dam Keeper.

Since 2014, she has also been working closely with the Google Spotlight Stories team at Google ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) to launch several new 360° interactive stories made especially for mobile devices.
- IMDb mini biography by: Women In Animation Official Site Bio

Fumi Kitahara has worked in film publicity and marketing for over 30 years. She began her career at The Walt Disney Company, working in the film publicity department on such films as Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story, as well as many live-action titles. From there she joined DreamWorks SKG, where she had the unique opportunity of starting her own department during the inception of the company. As head of animation publicity at DreamWorks, she played an instrumental role in launching such acclaimed Academy Award®-winning films as Shrek and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, as well as The Prince of Egypt, Chicken Run, Shrek 2 & 3, Madagascar and Over the Hedge. In 2007, Fumi left DreamWorks to open her own boutique firm, the pr kitchen. As a seasoned consultant, Fumi contributed to the publicity and awards campaigns for the Oscar®-winning animated film, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, as well as such Oscar®-nominated films as Coraline, How to Train Your Dragon, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Kubo and the Two Strings, Mirai, Missing Link, Klaus, I Lost My Body, Over the Moon, Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, The Sea Beast and Nimona. She has also worked on such Oscar®-winning animated shorts as: Netflix's If Anything Happens I Love You, The Windshield Wiper and Apple TV+'s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and has overseen campaigns for Oscar®-nominated animated short films for the past 14 years, including such titles as: French Roast, The Gruffalo, A Morning Stroll, Adam and Dog, Room on the Broom, Possessions, The Dam Keeper, Pearl, Borrowed Time, Negative Space, Revolting Rhymes, Weekends, Late Afternoon, Sister, Opera and War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko. Fumi also worked with Google Spotlight Stories as their key entertainment publicist for over four years, working on strategy, launch and awards campaigns for all of their titles during that time, including the Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning Pearl, the Emmy®-winning Age of Sail and the acclaimed Glen Keane film, duet. She also worked with multi-Emmy Award-winning Baobab Studios on such acclaimed titles as Baba Yaga and Namoo. Aside from her work on animated projects, Fumi has also worked on the acclaimed documentary features, Walt & El Grupo, Waking Sleeping Beauty, and Tyrus, as well as Aneta Kopacz's Oscar®-nominated documentary short, Joanna. Fumi has served as the PR Chair for Women in Animation for the past 10 years and is a member of the PR branch of the Academy.
- IMDb mini biography by: Fumi Kitahara