KY DICKENS
Director
Award-winning filmmaker Ky Dickens is best known for her acclaimed documentaries that shift public policy and culture. She’s been hailed a storyteller at the intersection of film and complex social issues – demonstrated by receiving the Focus Award for Achievement in Directing from Women in FIlm and the Ford Foundation Change Maker Award for influencing social change through art and film. Her film, #TimeToCare premiered at SXSW in 2021 and then for the United States Congress. #TimeToCare, highlights influencers whose surreal caregiving journeys made them TikTok sensations. Ms. Dickens’ film Zero Weeks, about America’s paid leave crisis, premiered its trailer at the White House Summit on the United State of Women, hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama in 2018.
From 2019-2021, she rolled out a series of award-winning short films about hard working people dying of curable diseases due to the Medicaid Gap. These films (Critical Condition, On The Edge & Left Behind) were in partnership with the American Cancer Society, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and local governments throughout the country. Her 2019 film, The City That Sold America is about Chicago’s crucial, yet often-overlooked, place in American consumer culture. The film is a sequel to Emmy Award-winning Art & Copy. Ms. Dickens documentary Sole Survivor (CNN Films), profiled four survivors of otherwise fatal plane crashes. Her first feature documentary, Fish Out of Water, was recognized for its instrumental role in changing the national faith perspective on LGBTQ human rights.
Collectively, her films have won more than 20 awards for best picture and audience choice. In addition to her feature film work, she directs commercials for some of the biggest brands in America. Her clients include Netflix, Google, Facebook, Tylenol, McDonald’s, Hershey’s and Kellogg’s. Ms. Dickens’ is featured on the “Free the Work” list of the female directors in America. She’s an active member of Film Fatales Los Angeles and a member of the Directors Guild of American. She graduated with magna cum laude honors from Vanderbilt University and lives in beautiful Burbank, CA with her wife, two kids, Devon Rex cats and a Kombucha scoby.