Bio
Karen Wilkens is a two-time Emmy Nominated Multi-Camera Director in Los Angeles who has made the jump to directing in the single camera format. Karen directed Season Two and Three of Venice The Series, the Emmy Winning online drama created, written and starring Crystal Chappell. Venice is currently in production on Season 4! Her most recent project was co-Directing alongside the incomparable Susan Flannery, on The Grove, a pilot production also by Crystal Chappell and Open Book Productions. She still occasionally directs on other Soap Operas on a freelance basis, including Days of Our Lives and The Young and The Restless. Also, Karen has discovered Live TV, stage managing on all of The NFL Network's Live shows, NBC's Access Hollywood Live and TBS' Conan.
A little background: For nine years Karen was a Contract Director on NBC's Passions. While at Passions, she had the opportunity to work on one of the most unconventional soap operas on the air, directing comedy and satire filled scenes in addition to traditional drama. The show incorporated a supernatural storyline, so her experience includes many special effects, musical numbers, stunts and fights. She also excelled in working with children and animals (orangutans, cows, turkeys, owls, snakes—even a lion), in addition to plain old boring adults.
As for her non-soap projects, Karen has directed and produced an independent short film, FOUR STEPS, a lighthearted comedy starring Erin Cardillo, Eric Martsolf and Concetta Tomei that has been screened at multiple film festivals. Karen also produced and directed another mini-short film regarding Prop 8 in California for Project Pushback, as well as two PSAs on the same topic. These two PSAs, starring Lucy Lawless and Eva Tamargo garnered major attention when they were released on YouTube. Karen also produced and directed an online talk/cooking show hosted by comedian Erin Foley called "Dishin' It Up!". You can see a sizle reel of it here. She also directed the pilot for a reality series being shopped around called "Room To Be Different", which is a home redesign show for children diagnosed with Autism and Special Needs.
Karen has a Black Belt in Hapkido, Karate, which has helped her enormously in her staging of fight scenes. She’s an avid hiker in the mountains of Los Angeles, in addition to being a transplanted New Yorker valiantly bringing her LA born children up as Yankee fans.
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