Maggie Kang

Kang was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Toronto, Canada, when she was five. Originally moving there for her father's work, the family decided to stay in Canada, where Kang eventually grew up.^[2] She studied animation at Sheridan College and in her third year was recruited to DreamWorks Animation.^[3][4]

Kang was head of story for The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017), as well as a story artist for animated films such as Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), Rise of the Guardians (2012) and Puss in Boots (2011).^[3][4][5] She directed KPop Demon Hunters (2025) with Chris Appelhans.^[6] The film is based on an original concept she developed;^[5][7] in March 2026, it was announced that a sequel is planned for release in 2029.^[8]

Kang later attributed the demos of Ejae as one of the reasons KPop Demon Hunters was greenlit and cited the group Twice as an inspiration for the fictional K-pop girl group Huntrix in the film.^[9][10][11] She also said that the group Monsta X was one of the inspirations for the fictional boy band, the Saja Boys, in the film,^[12] and stated that Blackpink was another inspiration for Huntrix.^[13][14] Additionally, Kang asserted, as did Appelhans, that the tone and style of The Host was an inspiration for KPop Demon Hunters.^[15][16]

Puck reported that, due to the success of the film, Kang and Appelhans successfully negotiated a five-year, $10 million per annum contract with Netflix for the sequel, which includes a share of ancillary revenue from the franchise.^[17] Kang also signed with agency The Present Company to launch her activities in South Korea.^[18]

Kang is married to Radford Sechrist, creator of Netflix series Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.^[19] Sechrist gave her the idea for merging Korean mythology and K-pop, which became the film K-Pop Demon Hunters. According to Kang, she and Sechrist thought up the concept for the animation film, which was bought by Sony, and began development, a week after it was pitched over lunch in 2018.^[20]

Sechrist and Kang have a daughter, who had a role as a voice actor in KPop Demon Hunters, voicing the younger Rumi. Sechrist designed the Derpy Tiger character in the film, basing it upon minhwa and his cat Yumyan.^[21][22][23] Sechrist also was said to have designed characters and written "a lot of the scenes" for the film.^[19] Before this, in 2020, Sechrist revealed that Kang took him to BTS concerts, and said the K-pop genre was close to his heart.^[24]