November 12, 2024: Meeting & Luncheon | Kaitlyn Yang

KAITLYN YANG
CEO Alpha Studios

“Disability is Not a Bad Word”
Kaitlyn Yang is the CEO of Alpha Studios, and a visual effects artist for the last 14 years. She has founded her own nonprofit, the 1in4 Coalition, and is a list maker for Forbes 30 Under 30. As a Chinese American immigrant woman, and a wheelchair user, she believes that more overlooked talents can be found at the intersection of disability and all other diverse populations. Kaitlyn graduated 2011 from USC School of Cinematic Arts, and was honored with the USC Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Merit Award in 2023.

Holiday Boutique in the Town & Gown of USC Courtyard 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

KAITLYN YANG

Since 2007, Kaitlyn Yang has pushed the limits of visual effects creativity combined with technology to support film and TV storytelling. Kaitlyn worked her way up from an intern and then digital artist, to now serving as a Visual Effects Supervisor and CEO of the post-production company Alpha Studios. In 2023, Kaitlyn was recognized as one of Variety’s prestigious 10 Artisans to Watch. With esteemed clients including Amazon, Coca-Cola, YouTube, and Disney – Kaitlyn empowers her team, while earning trust from her clients every step of the way.

Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has supervised the visual effects department on numerous TV shows on major streaming platforms, including Grey’s Anatomy; the Apple TV series The Shrink Next Door, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd; as well as Best Foot Forward for Apple TV+, Absentia for Amazon, The Innocent Man for Netflix, and The Good Doctor for Sony. Most recently, Kaitlyn worked as the Visual Effects Supervisor on Disney+’s American Born Chinese, which stars recent Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan as well as the Oscar-nominated Stephanie Hsu. Alpha Studios also provided visual effects for the 2024 Oscar nominated live action short film, Red, White and Blue.

On the film side, Kaitlyn has supervised visual effects on several culturally empowering independent features. Most notable among these credits is her work on Emily Ting’s Go Back to China, which premiered at the 2019 SXSW film festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Award; as well as the documentary Hailing Cesar made by Cesar Chavez’s grandson Eduardo Chavez on immigrant workers.

Alongside her work in visual effects, Kaitlyn is a fierce advocate for the representation of disabled persons in the industry. She is the co-founder of 1IN4, an intersectional coalition of disabled creatives focused on long-term institutional shifts to increase the employment and authentic representation of disabled people in media. As a Chinese American immigrant woman and wheelchair user, Kaitlyn believes that overlooked talents can always be found at the intersection of disability and all other diverse populations. Kaitlyn’s remarkable career earned her a place on the Forbes 30 under 30 list under the Hollywood Entertainment category. Kaitlyn was also the recipient of the Young Alumni Merit Award from her undergraduate alma mater, the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts. Her impressive education further includes securing her MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology, and earning certificates from the USC Business School and Harvard Business School for Leadership Training and Organizational Psychology.