talent

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 they do not look anything like themselves. She even got my name on it, which was awesome.”

After graduating from Loyola Marymount University in 2018, Jimenez and McMechan quickly found their footing in the industry, as well as representation. But it was their still unproduced screenplay, “Luna Likes,” about a Mexican American teenage girl obsessed with the late chef and author Anthony Bourdain, that tangentially put them on the “KPop” path.

“Luna Likes” earned the pair a spot at the prestigious Sundance Screenwriters Lab, where Nicole Perlman, who co-wrote “Guardians of the Galaxy,” served as one of their advisors. Perlman, credited as a production consultant on “KPop,” thought they would be a good fit.

Jimenez didn’t see the connection between her R-rated comedy about a moody Mexican American teen and a PG animated feature set in the world of K-pop music, but the duo still pitched. Their idea more closely resembled an indie dramedy than an epic action flick.

“If [our version of ‘KPop’] were live-action, it would’ve been a million-dollar budget. It was the smallest movie ever. Our big finale was a pool party,” Jimenez says. “We had all of the girls and the boys with instruments, which obviously is not a thing in K-pop, and everyone was making out.”

Even though their original pitch wouldn’t work for the film, Maggie Kang, the co-director and also a co-writer, believed their voices as two young women who were best friends, roommates and creative collaborators could help the movie’s heroines feel more authentic.

“Maggie had already interviewed all of the more established writers, especially older men,” Jimenez says. “She knows the culture. She knew K-pop, she’s an animator. She just needed the girls’ voices to come through, so I think that’s why we got hired.”

Kang confirms this via email: “It’s always great to collaborate with writers who are the actual age of your characters! Hannah and Danya were exactly that,” she says. “They were very helpful in bringing a fresh, young voice to HUNTR/X.”

Neither Jimenez nor McMechan were K-pop fans at the time. As part of their research, they both started watching K-pop videos, but it was McMechan who got “sucked into the K-hole” first. Still, it didn’t take long until the video for BTS’ “Life Goes On” entranced Jimenez.

“K-pop is a river that you fall into, and it just takes you,” Jimenez says. BTS and Got7 are her favorite groups. For McMechan, the ensemble that captivates her most is Stray Kids.

In writing the trio of demon hunters, the co-writers modeled them after themselves. The characters’ propensity for ugly faces, silliness and a bit of grossness too, stems from the portrayals of girlhood and young womanhood that appeal to them. Jimenez, who says she was an angsty teen, most closely identifies with the rebellious Mira.

“I have a monotone vibe,” says Jimenez. “People always think that I’m a bitch just because I have a resting bitch face,” she says. “But as you can see in the movie, Mira cares so much about having everyone be really close. I feel like that’s how I’m with all my friends.”

Characters with strong personalities that are not simplistically likable feel the truest to Jimenez. In “Luna Likes,” the prickly protagonist is directly inspired by her experiences growing up, as well as the bond she shared with her dad over Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” show.

“There’s a pressure to show that Mexicans are nice people and we’re hard workers. I was like, ‘Let’s make her kind of bitchy and very flawed,’” Jimenez says about Luna. “She’s a teenager in America and she should be given all the same opportunities — and also the forgiveness for being an ass— and [as] selfish at that age as anybody else.”

Hannah McMechan, left, and Danya Jimenez, co-writers of “KPop Demon Hunters,” met in college.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

Though their upbringings were markedly different, it was their shared comedic sensibilities that connected Jimenez and McMechan when they met in college. The two were close long before deciding to pen stories together. “Having a writing partner is the best. I feel bad for people who don’t have a writing partner, no offense to them,” says Jimenez.

McMechan explains that their writing partnership works because it’s grounded on true friendship. And she believes they would not have gotten this far without each other. While McMechan’s strong suit is looking at the bigger picture, Jimenez finds humor in the details.

“Danya is definitely funnier than me,” says McMechan. “It’s really hard to write comedy in dialogue versus comedy in a situation because if you’re putting the comedy in the dialogue, it can sound so forced and cringey. But she’s really good at making it sound natural but still really funny.”

Though she had been writing stories for herself as a teen, Jimenez didn’t consider it a career path until as a high schooler she watched the romantic comedy “No Strings Attached,” in which Ashton Kutcher plays a production assistant for a TV series.

“He is having a horrible time. But I was so obsessed with movies and TV, and I was like, ‘That looks incredible. I want to be doing what he’s doing,’” she recalls. “And my dad was like, ‘That’s a job.’”

Danya Jimenez grew up in Orange County.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

As an infant, Jimenez spent some time living in Tijuana, where her parents are from, until the family settled back in San Diego, where she was born. And when she was around 5 years old, Jimenez, an only child, and her parents relocated to Orange County. Until then, Jimenez mostly spoke Spanish, which made for a tricky transition when starting school.

“I knew English, but it just wasn’t a habit,” she recalls. “I would raise my hand and accidentally speak Spanish in class. My teachers would be like, ‘We’re worried about her vocabulary.’ That was always an issue, so it’s really funny that I turned out to be a writer.”

As she points out in her professional bio, it was movies and TV that helped with her English vocabulary, especially the Disney sitcom “Lizzie McGuire.”

Jimenez describes growing up in Orange County with few Latinos around outside of her family as an alienating experience. She admits to feeling great shame for some of her behaviors as a teenager afraid of being treated differently and desperate to fit in.

“I would speak Spanish to my mom like in a corner because I didn’t want everyone else to hear me speak Spanish,” Jimenez confesses. “If my mom pulled up to school to drop me off playing Spanish hits from the ‘80s or banda, I was like, ‘Can you turn it down please?’”

Like a lot of young Latinos, she’s now taking steps to connect with her heritage, and, in a way, atone for those moments where she let what others might think rob her of her pride.

“During the pandemic I cornered my grandma to make all of her recipes again so I could write them down,” she recalls. “Now I have them all written down on a website. Or if my mom corrects me for something that I’m saying in Spanish, I now listen.”

At the risk of angering her, Jimenez describes her mother as a “cool mom,” and compares her to Amy Poehler’s character in “Mean Girls.” Raised in a household without financial struggles, Jimenez doesn’t often relate to stories about Latinos in the U.S. that make it to film and TV. Her hope is to expand Latino storytelling beyond the tropes.

“That’s very important to me, to just tell Latino stories or Mexican stories in a way that’s just authentic to me and hopefully someone else is like, ‘Yes, that’s me,’” she says. “A lot of people have certain expectations for Latino stories that I’m not willing to compromise on.”

Though they still would like to make “Luna Likes” if given the chance, for now, Jimenez and McMechan will continue their rapid ascent.

They’re “goin’ up, up, up” because it is their “moment.” They recently wrapped the Apple TV show “Brothers” starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson that filmed in Texas. They are also writing the feature “Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman” for Tim Burton to direct, with Margot Robbie in talks to star.

“I feel like I’ve just been operating in a state of shock for the past, I don’t know how many months since June,” says Jimenez in her signature deadpan affect. “But if I think about it too much, I’d be a nervous wreck.”

When 32 freshman football players filed excitedly into the meeting room at John McKay Center in January for their first official meeting at USC, each new Trojan from the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class in 2026 was asked to stand up, share their name, number, position and an interesting fact about them.

This was pretty standard fare, as far as ice-breakers go. Albeit with one notable difference from past years.

“It was abnormally long [this year,] for sure,” senior offensive lineman Tobias Raymond said, with a laugh.

As USC opened spring practice on Tuesday, a cursory glance through its spring roster would tell you just how much the Trojans will need those freshmen to find their footing — and fast — in a season likely to be defined by their development. Nearly half of the players in attendance for Tuesday’s first day (46 of 103) were either freshmen or redshirt freshmen. That’s almost triple the current size of USC’s junior or senior classes (16).

If the Trojans have any hope of making the College Football Playoff for the first time in five tries under Lincoln Riley, an influx of 18- and 19-year-olds will play a major part.

“There’s a lot of new guys,” Riley said Tuesday. “Getting a look at these people, seeing where they’re at in terms of their development and where they’ve gotta go, I think the evaluation process is going to be really important.”

At no position will that be more critical than pass catcher, where USC must replace its top two wide receivers, Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, and top two tight ends, Lake McRee and Walker Lyons. In their place steps a deep crop of young talented options, all hoping to emerge this spring.

There will certainly be no shortage of opportunity for USC’s four incoming freshmen receivers (Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, Trent Mosley, Luc Weaver and Tron Baker) and two incoming tight ends (freshman Mark Bowman and junior college transfer Josiah Jefferson) to make that impression. In addition to the void left by Lemon and Lane’s departures, the Trojans will also be without their top returning wideout this spring, as Tanook Hines will sit out the entire session following an offseason procedure.

Hines, who’s only a sophomore, could probably use the next five weeks of spring to develop, considering how much of the Trojans passing attack is likely to rest on his shoulders this fall. But Riley said he thought Hines’ absence could actually be “a blessing in disguise” for the rest of the room.

“All these guys, they’re going to get a ton of reps and they all need them,” Riley said. “What a phenomenal opportunity for all those other guys to develop and to take advantage of those reps. We’re going to need that.”

That directive has been clear enough to USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava since the Trojans’ fleet of freshmen arrived on campus. Maiava has spent much of the past two months trying to build a connection with young players on both sides of the ball, taking them out to dinners, watching film with them, walking through the playbook and even conducting players-only sessions on the practice field.

“It’s a big impact for the guys I’m going out there with,” Maiava said Tuesday. “Just letting them know I care about them and I care about their success. I want the best for them, and I want them to know that.”

In his third season as starter, Maiava won’t have the benefit of one of college football’s best pass-catching pairs at his disposal. He’ll also enter 2026 on the shortlist for the Heisman Trophy — and all the pressure that comes with that.

Offensive coordinator Luke Huard said last month that Maiava has had “a tremendous sense of urgency” since the end of last season.

Raymond, who will snap to Maiava as a center this spring, said the quarterback’s communication has improved “exponentially.”

“Seeing when someone is down or seeing when someone has a good play and picking them up or congratulating them, but also getting on people when they do something wrong,” Raymond said. “If he sees something, he calls it out. If he sees something good, he calls it out.”

Receiver isn’t the only spot where freshmen will get a serious chance to compete next season. On the offensive line, five-star offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe — at 6-foot-7, 330 pounds — already looks quite capable of contributing on a Big Ten front. The same could be said of edge rusher Luke Wafle — 6-foot-6, 265 pounds — and defensive tackles Jameion Winfield — 6-foot-3, 325 pounds — all of whom were five-star prospects.

Still, it may take some time for that young talent to show through, with USC also breaking in both a new defense and special teams concepts. But for what the Trojans will likely lack in experience this spring, they’ll make up for, in some part, with depth.

“We’ve never had a spring practice, none of us in all of our years, that we’ve had this high of a percentage of your full roster already here for spring,” Riley said. “Which is a huge advantage.”

There’s still the small matter of getting all those newcomers to gel. But on that note, Riley thinks talk of USC’s youth movement overlooks how many talented players are returning.

“We’ve kind of gotten painted on the outside as just this crazy young team,” Riley said. “Like, we do have some really good youth, and I know that class has gotten some attention in terms of how that recruiting process played out, but we’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball here. … You like the talent that we have, you like the returners. I love the guys we brought in. But like one of the best sports franchises of all time said, ‘You’re not collecting talent, you’re building a team.’

“We’ve got talent. Now we’ve got to build a team.”

Injury report

In addition to being down its No. 1 receiver, USC will be without two of its returning starters on the offensive line this spring. Center Kilian O’Connor and right tackle Justin Tauanuu will sit out while recovering from surgical procedures. Left tackle Elijah Paige didn’t practice on Day 1 of spring ball, either.

Cornerbacks Jontez Williams and Chasen Johnson and safety Christian Pierce won’t participate this spring, either, Riley said Tuesday.

Running back Waymond Jordan was limited to start spring ball, as was defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart.