Lee, who is based in Los Angeles, won the Children’s and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Series for her work on The Molecular Level, an episode from Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur’s second season.
Samantha Suyi Lee is an Emmy-award winning Singaporean animation artist based in Los Angeles. (Photo: Samantha Suyi Lee, Marvel Studios)
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17 Mar 2025 12:55PM
(Updated: 17 Mar 2025 05:30PM)
Samantha Suyi Lee, a Singaporean animator, director and storyboard artist based in Los Angeles, has won a Children’s and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Series.
She received the award on Saturday (Mar 15) for The Molecular Level, the 14th episode of Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur’s second season, a Disney Television Animation production.
The show also picked up other accolades, including Best Children’s or Young Teen Animated Series and Best Writing for a Children’s or Young Teen Animated Series.
Based on Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur by Marvel Comics, the animated series follows a young girl, Lunella Lafayette, and her dinosaur companion, Devil Dinosaur.
Lee is the first Singaporean to win at the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, which is on its third edition. She is also believed to be the first Singaporean to win an individual Emmy award of any kind.
She describes a lot of her journey as an animator as mostly consisting of “working on shows, meeting new people, making sure I’m a solid artist and forging genuine relationships”.
“And when someone enjoys working with you, you never know when those friendships could sometimes lead to the next job,” she told CNA Lifestyle.
Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur has wrapped after two and a half seasons and Lee is already deep into her next project. She is currently working as a story artist at Sony Pictures Animation on Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse.
The 36-year-old graduated from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in animation.
Her first foray into professional animation was at One Animation, a local 3D animation studio that was founded in 2008. There, Lee learned the ropes of the industry and started as a storyboard artist and later became a showrunner. The studio closed in 2024.
At One Animation, she worked on different projects, including Oddbods, a Singaporean comedy animation series that was nominated for an award at International Emmy Kids Awards three times, in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
“The experience at One Animation helped me a lot, as it allowed me to develop my skills as an animation artist and director outside of school,” Lee shared.
In 2017, Lee moved to the United States and worked on various animation projects as a storyboard artist, including Cleopatra In Space by Dreamworks Studios, DC League Of Super-Pets by Warner Bros Entertainment and We Lost Our Human and Centaurworld by Netflix.
“In the animation industry and in Los Angeles, it’s pretty common for artists to hop from show to show rather than stay in a studio for a long time,” Lee said.
There are pros and cons to this: “It’s good because we can work on a show we’d like no matter what studio is producing it, but it can be tough because we have to actively line up the next gig before the current one is up.”
In May 2020, she worked at Disney Television Animation on Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur for two and a half seasons as a director until December 2023.
When Lee received the Emmy, she was beyond elated; her friends and family were all “squealing for joy”.
In an Instagram post about the award, she dedicated it to her crew, saying they “made something special”.
Speaking to CNA Lifestyle, Lee shared her hope that her win would inspire budding artists in Singapore and encourage more support for creative careers.
“I’ve been very blessed to have supportive parents who encouraged my artistic work, but I know many whose parents discourage them from pursuing the arts because they may think ‘it’s just not a realistic, sustainable job,’” she said.
“When adults don’t value art, kids learn not to value it either – that creates a society that overlooks the importance of art as a whole,” she added.
“This mindset makes it difficult for film or animation studios to thrive and tell authentic, personal stories through quality mediums. Add in a recession, and we’ve seen many great studios with excellent artists shut down or downsize drastically in recent years.
“When that happens, people reinforce the idea that art isn’t a viable career, when in reality, there are often bigger factors at play.”
Lee believes Singapore has powerful, authentic stories waiting to be told. “With the right kind of support and love, we absolutely have people who are skilled, talented, and driven enough to bring them to life.”
