Kimberly Woods ’05 Is Bringing Diversity to Fantasy Films

Growing up with mixed Black, Indigenous, Mexican, and Irish heritage, Kimberly Woods ’05 never felt like she fit into a box. As a result, she says, “Fantasy and science fiction was always someplace I felt I could escape to.”

Fast forward to today, and Woods has worked as an actress, voice artist, entrepreneur, and producer with sci-fi and fantasy credits including Lanterns, Sword Art Online, Archer, and X-Men ’97.

In 2020, Woods and her husband, Andrew Jordan ’05, co-founded Mintrix Films, a production company dedicated to creating inclusive fantasy movies. “Oftentimes Hollywood was making or remaking old IP (intellectual property) which is often Eurocentric,” she says, “so I really wanted to create Mintrix film and have it be a place where we’re working on creating new IP that’s original and diverse.”

Woods says she got bit by the acting bug at Princeton, where she studied neuroscience and theater. She met Jordan during the Princeton in Hollywood summer internship program, and after graduating they moved out to Los Angeles together. 

Their most recent film is Mintrix and the Elven Figurine, in which Woods stars as a “pansexual, female medieval James Bond.” To bring this magical world to life, they worked with VFX creatives from Dungeons and Dragons and recorded live songs with musicians from Bulgaria. The film has been positively received by audiences at major festivals including San Diego ComicCon and GeekFest.

“We’ve had people come up and ask us, ‘When can we see more?’” Woods says. “It’s been encouraging to have other Black people come up to me and say ‘I see what you’re doing, thank you, this is really cool. How can I help?’”

Woods’s work extends far beyond the fantasy realm. In 2024, she won an Emmy for producing the documentary Leveling Lincoln, about a landmark 1960s school desegregation case in New Rochelle, New York. 

“I was excited to sign on because it was a story I didn’t know about,” she says. A lot of people in New Rochelle didn’t know it, either. Parents in a predominantly Black and underfunded school had fought a court case to get a better education for their children in an era of segregation and redlining. “I was really inspired to learn more and try to enlighten more people about this little known story,” Woods says.

Currently, Woods is working on a new animated series, Avatar: Seven Havens, voicing the character Uki, a young firebender. She was drawn to the project because of its diversity: “Avatar is an inclusive fantasy universe that’s based on so many different cultures, including Indigenous cultures. This season there’s also a lot of South East Asian cultures and South Asian cultures, which is really phenomenal.”

Overall, Woods says she’s optimistic that the indie fantasy film landscape is moving in the right direction. Independent artists just need to keep it coming. “One of the reasons why I’m trying with Mintrix films to create those inclusive spaces is because as a producer, I have that power,” she says. “I’m excited about continuing to create and hoping to see more and more diverse worlds on my screen.” 

Woods gives the following advice to aspiring actors and filmmakers in the Princeton community: “Number one, believe in yourself. Number two, get to know who you are. Be authentically you and that’s what’s going to get your work and get you recognized.”

Watch the teaser trailer for Mintrix and the Elven Figurine: