Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence is a writer-director hailing from Washington, DC and Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Raised in a family of activists, critical race theorists, and freedom fighters, she has always been drawn to storytelling as a means to build a new world.

After working in theater in New York alongside Anna Deveare Smith, Diane Paulus, and Kerry Washington, Kimiko transitioned to television and film, writing for TV shows TWENTIES and BOOMERANG. Since then, she's developed TV projects at Netflix, Apple, and MRC, and produced the award-winning short film little trumpet. Her essay "On Being Black and Asian in America" was published in TIME Magazine and featured in the collection My Life: Growing Up Asian in America from MTV Books and Simon & Schuster. Her past work includes the plays Holding: A Queer Black Love Story; Black Magic; and I, Too, Am Harvard (also a viral photo campaign).

Kimiko is one half of the filmmaking duo FLYPAPER, alongside Megan Trufant Tillman. Their directorial debut, NEWBIES – a lyrical queer Black coming-of-age film starring Mia Isaac, Josiah Cross, and Danny Glover – will have its World Premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival.