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So I have a crush on Karena Evans.
Hear me out..a creative crush! Karena Evans is just a young woman breaking glass ceilings and doing it through videography.
At 25 years old, Karena Evans has an impressive resume and Canadian pride that is neither boastful nor arrogant but eloquently loud and proud. While Canadian talent is continuously growing in multiple creative genres, it is always a warm-hearted feeling to see people who look and/or represent a demographic you are apart. Evans does that. In her Elle Magazine interview, Evans mentions that Canadian talent has a hunger “to defy this Canadian idea of playing it safe,” which I admire and witness consistently in her work.
In 2018, at the age of 22, Evans directed four of Drake’s videos from his five-time platinum album Scorpion. In her first viral video , God’s Plan, Evans filmed Drake giving away his $1 Million production budget to unsuspecting citizens of Miami. Next up, was (my personal favourite) Nice for What, an homage to women everywhere. After that, I’m Upset, a video that captured every Canadian’s soft spot … a Degrassi reunion. Evans closes her 2018 Drake chapter with In My Feelings, Evans took a bounce track to its roots, and filmed the hit in New Orleans.
After her whirlwind of a year, she was awarded the Canadian Prism Prize’s Lipsett award, an award given to music video artists for their innovative and artistic approach to music videos. At 22 years, Karena Evans was the first woman to win the award.
Evans started taking acting classes, going to Ryerson University, creating short films, and making connections everywhere she went. It wasn’t enough though, Evans found the contact information for Director X through mutuals, set up a meeting for the following day, and became his intern. With a mentor in Director X and an influenced by Melina Matsoukas (both highlighted last week), Evans is just starting . Fast-forward to 2021, Evans has television credits under her belt (P-Valley, Snowfall, and the new Gossip Girl reboot) and a slew of projects in the works.
Visually talented, diverse, and fresh perspectives here we come.
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