Kase Peña

she/her
Kase Peña is a Latinx trans woman with light brown skin. She is posing in front of a black background with curly black hair at shoulder length. She has black glasses, gold hoops, a gold necklace and a black t-shirt.

Kase Peña is a Latinx trans woman with light brown skin. She is posing in front of a black background with curly black hair at shoulder length. She has black glasses, gold hoops, a gold necklace and a black t-shirt.

Job title
filmmaker  
Identity categories
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trans woman   Dominican   Latinx  
Places of practice

Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Alternate names

Kase Pena

Images
Kase Peña is a Latinx trans woman with light brown skin. She is posing in front of a black background with curly black hair at shoulder length. She has black glasses, gold hoops, a gold necklace and a black t-shirt.
Metadata
Biography

An award-winning filmmaker, Kase Peña was born in New York City. She’s a Transgender Woman of Color, the offspring of working class parents from the Dominican Republic. She’s fluent in Spanish and also speaks intermediate Portuguese. Kase is the first Trans-Latinx Woman to join the Writers Guild of America. Tribeca recently mentioned Kase and her film Trans Los Angeles on their Instagram stories, as a filmmaker and a film worthy of being supported. Legendary Trans icon Carmen Carrera and Stephanie Beatriz of Brooklyn 99 fame are attached to Trans Los Angeles.

Her feature screenplay I Love Hate, the recipient of The Sundance Institute Launch Grant, is being produced by Angel Lopez, a producer on Justin Simien’s Dear White People and Bad Hair; both of these films had their World Premiere at Sundance.

HBO has picked up distribution rights to Full Beat, Kase’s latest short film. Along with her short Trabajo, this marks the second time HBO distributes a film written and directed by Kase Peña. Furthermore, Kase has been the recipient of some of the most acclaimed Fellowships in the industry, including The Latino Lens Narrative Shorts Incubator; the Ryan Murphy TV Directing Program; Film Independent Project Involve, Women-In-Film, among many others. Sony Pictures Entertainment named Kase their Diversity Fellow for 2019. Last year, Kase shadowed Emmy Award winning Showrunner/Director Joey Soloway on the set of Transparent Musicale Finale.

Film Fatales. “Kase Peña,” n.d. filmfatales.org/directors/kasepena.

Kase is a Bronx native who was born in New York City to parents that immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic.

Following a successful film festival run, Kase's latest short film, TRABAJO, was picked up for distribution by HBO and can be seen on HBO GO, HBO Now and HBO Latino.

Kase is a graduate of The City College of New York (CCNY) Film Program and a graduate of Martin Luther King, Jr. High School in midtown Manhattan.

In addition to attending film school, Kase took Scene Study classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the Susan Batson Studio, both in New York; and Directing Actors with Joan Scheckel in Los Angeles, CA.

Following film school, and while working on professional film crews, Kase studied Art and Figure Drawing at the renown Art Students League of New York.

IMDb. “Mini Bio,” n.d. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3016324/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm.
Filmography
  • It is a drawing of a person's body nude. The title above it reads "Weight," with the tagline immediately below reading "Obesity was never the problem. Her trainer was". The person's facial features are blurred out leaving just their silhouette over a tan background.

    Weight

    film/video, 2013

    Writer/Screenwriter/Story, Director, Producer, Cinematographer/Director of Photography, Editor

  • A default icon for a node which has no primary image

    I Am... Laith Ashley

    film/video, 2017

    Director

References
Gonzalez, Sandra. “How Kase Peña Is Creating a Legacy of Authenticity.” CNN, June 11, 2021. https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/11/entertainment/latinxcellence-kase-pena/index.html.