Karina Lomelin Ripper is a Mexican-American writer and director. She splits her time between her hometown of Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon. Her films often tell stories that center Latina/e characters, opting to subvert expectations, taking audiences on a ride.

Karina’s production experience extends across independent films, documentaries and commercials. Her background is in associate producing on shows for National Geographic WILD and The Discovery Channel, as well as feature documentaries for HBO and A&E Films. Karina was accepted into the Venice Biennale Cinema Workshop in 2017 as the producer on the feature film Clementine.

As a director, Karina’s most recent short film Chispa was supported by Fujifilm and will premiere at festivals in 2024. Her previous short (co-writer/co-director) Superfan, premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival in 2022 and was listed as one of No Budge’s top films of the year in 2023. Her documentary short Visions screened at numerous festivals including Sidewalk, Bend, Maryland and won Best Documentary Short at the Official Latino Film Festival in 2022. In 2020, her previous short documentary La Tienda received a Vimeo Staff Pick and went to air on PBS as part of The Latino Experience.

In 2021, she was awarded a coveted spot at the Eastern Oregon Filmmaker Residency to develop her first feature screenplay. As a recipient of 2023’s Tell Your Story Oregon Creative Foundation Grant, she is developing a feature script based off of her short film CHISPA. Karina is on the directors roster at Maverick and is honored to be in the AFI DWW+ Class of 2025.