Awards Received:

  • USA Artists Project Grant for "Local..." 2012

  • Cinedance Film Festival First Prize "Rolling..." 2005

  • NYU Film School Adjunct Development Grant 2005

  • Dance Films Association Grant "Hepa!" 1998

  • NIPAD Production Grant "Rolling...." 1998

  • Fellowship at UCLA in Dance Media 1998

  • NYFA Grant 1997

  • Broadcast Design Silver Prize 1995

  • Asifa East First Prize "Capoeira" 1994

  • Ann Arbor Film Festival Best Animated Film "Status..." 1992

  • Creativity Magazine "Capoeira" 1995

  • NYU Animation Award 1990 and 1991

  • University of Hawaii Creative Writing 1988

Besides creating her own films, Laura worked as a designer and colorist at MTV Animation on the cult classics “The Head”, “Beavis and Butthead” and “Daria” and more recently animated for the Cartoon network show "Clarence".    While living in NYC, Laura worked for independent animators George Griffin, John Canemaker, Jeff Scher, Mo Willems, Jane Aaron, Suzanne Pitt and Bill Plimpton among others.  Laura has taught animation at Pratt, New York Film Academy, The School of Visual Arts and was a full time faculty at New York University where she taught for thirteen years.  Laura has taught at Punahou school, 'Iolani school and Hawaii Women in Filmmaking and she is currently a lecturer at the Academy of Creative Media at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.   She was selected to be in the "Artists of Hawaii" show at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 2011.  Laura completed a commissioned animated documentary for the non-profit Pacific Survivor Center in 2017.  She coordinated the animation as well as creating an animated segment for the collaborative project Symphony of The Hawaiian Birds presented live at Blaisdell Concert Hall 2018-2019 to over 10,000 children. She is a featured filmmaker in the 2019 film Reel Wahine of Hawaii. Laura is presently animating her film “Local Kine Academy Leader”.