Meet the Mexican American talent behind 'KPop Demon Hunters'

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The House of Pies, a Los Feliz institution, is bustling on a chilly January morning.It wouldn’t be shocking if some of the patrons here for breakfast were casually chit-chatting about the cultural behemoth that “KPop Demon Hunters” has become.After all, the 2025 animated saga about three music stars fighting otherworldly foes is now the most-watched movie ever on Netflix; “Golden,” its showstopping track, has since become the first Korean pop song to ever win a Grammy.But for Danya Jimenez, 29, who sits across from me sipping coffee, the reception to the movie she began writing on back in 2020 isn’t entirely surprising, but certainly delayed.“When we first started working on it, I was like, ‘People are going to be obsessed with this.

It’s going to be the best thing ever,’” she recalls.But as several years passed, and she and her writing partner and best friend Hannah McMechan, 30, moved on to other projects.

They weren’t sure if “KPop” would ever see the light of day.Production for animation takes time.It wasn’t until she learned that her Mexican parents were organically aware of the movie that Jimenez considered it could actually live up to the potential she initially had hoped for.“Without me saying anything, my parents were like, ‘People are talking about this’ — like my dad’s co-workers or my aunt’s friends — that’s when I started to realize, ‘This might be something big,’” she says.“But never in my life did I think it would be at this scale.”“KPop Demon Hunters” is now nominated for two Academy Awards: animated feature and original song.

And that’s on top of how ubiquitous the characters — Rumi, Mira and Zoey — already are.“Everyone sends me photos of knockoff ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ dolls from across the border,” Jimenez says laughing.“My friend got me a shirt from Mexicali with the three girls, but...