Katherine Propper

Propper was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.^[7] Her mother is from Korea and her father, of European descent, is from New York.^[2] On her father's side, she is a great-granddaughter of Eduardo Propper de Callejon, a Spanish diplomat and a Righteous Among the Nations, and a cousin of British actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Propper attended Georgetown University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History.^[8]

In 2016, she moved to Austin, Texas to attend the University of Texas at Austin where she received her MFA degree in Film directing.^[3] She wrote and directed her student short film Street Flame. The film follows a group of friends in Austin's skate and graffiti scene as they commemorate the life of their dead friend.^[9] Street Flame screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019 and won several awards at film festivals.^[10]

After completing her studies, she worked in Austin for American director Terrence Malick on the editing team of his long-gestating religious epic.^[2][11] Propper moved to Texas inspired by the independent, free spirit of Austin-based filmmakers like Malick, Richard Linklater, Jeff Nichols, and Robert Rodriguez.^[2][12]

The Austin Film Society supported her short film Birds, featuring intercut vignettes of Texas youths finding beauty on a summer day.^[13] Birds won awards at Clermont-Ferrand in France and at South by Southwest in 2022, where it won Special Jury Recognition for Vision.^[14] The New Yorker distributed Birds as part of its Screening Room series.^[15] TheWrap selected Birds in its 2023 shortlist of the best short films.^[11]

Propper's directorial feature-film debut Lost Soulz premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023.^[16] Lost Soulz is a coming-of-age movie about a young rapper whose dream comes true when he joins a music group on an odyssey headed West through Texas and instead finds himself on a spiritual journey home.^[16] The film was released by distributor Kino Lorber in the U.S. and Canada in May 2024.^[17]