Escaping the biting cold into the coziness of Kelly Writers House, I sit down with Ani Nguyen Le and get swept up in the beautiful world she’s animated for herself. Within minutes, I’m blown away by the humility and grace radiating off her. Her passion for entrepreneurship and interdisciplinary exploration is captivating—showing up as throughlines she’s intentionally woven into her reality.
Name: Ani Nguyen Le
Hometown: Budapest, Hungary
Field of study: Majors in Design and Cognitive Science
Activities: Penn Glee Club, Bell Senior Society, Kinoki Senior Society, Sigma Eta Pi Entrepreneurship Fraternity, Penn Spark, PAAM Animation Mentor, Daily Pennsylvanian & 34th Street Deputy Design Editor
When did you first fall in love with animation? And realize it was something more to you?
This is cliche, but I’ve been obsessed with animation from a very young age. I remember seeing my first animated movie, Howl’s Moving Castle, when I was around four or five because my babysitter put it on the TV. Since then, it’s been a medium I’ve loved to consume for sure.
In junior year of high school, everyone was required to write a research paper. But I wanted to make something more dynamic or engaging, so I convinced my principal to let me make an animated film, because I’d always been interested and thought this could be a good framework to try it out. That was my first animated short, and it went way beyond my expectations. It was about my experience growing up in Hungary, so very vulnerable, and my first time talking about myself in a piece of art to a lot of people. It ended up getting into media festivals, different competitions, galleries, rewards and everything. That was the first time in my life I thought, ‘Okay, maybe this isn’t a hobby anymore.’ I realized I wanted to do something like this for sure in my life.
You’ve mentioned your interest in the connection between sound and design—is that the direction you want your next project to go?
Yeah, I’m actually prototyping some of those ideas right now! I’ve been really interested in fashion and the concept of layering. I was learning from musicians about how important layering sounds is in music production. It reminded me of layering clothes in fashion. So I’m working with animation and a bit of vibe coding on this animation project where, as you add a piece of clothing to the character, a new sound will be layered on top.
I know you've considered the entrepreneurial space—but taking that big bet on yourself is so difficult. What inspired you to do that?
For me, I know I have to push myself into it. Don’t get me wrong, backup plans are great. But I know that I couldn’t have that for myself. I have to be backed into a wall and force myself to go without one to really push myself to accomplish what I want to do. Life is short, and if this is what I want, I realize I owe it to myself to fully pursue that.
What do you want your impact on Penn and the world to be?
Two main things. I know it’s so cliche, but I would love for more people to chase their passion. It’s so hard to not be in the mainstream. In the past, I’ve thought having a lot of different interests wasn’t necessarily good. We hear a lot of times you should specialize, find your niche, and become the best at it. While it’s true in many ways, I believe it’s good to have a lot of interests because of how they can cross communicate; a lot of areas can inspire other areas in your life in unexpected ways. People should never be afraid to do that. And here at Penn, you can learn anything any day. And that decision can change your whole life trajectory.
My other impact is how I started Work in Progress with a couple of my friends: Jasmine Wang, Karina Gupta, and Ruth Zhao.
Can you tell me more about Work In Progress?
It’s a working space where you can only work on an out–of–school passion project. We wanted a lot of creatives in different fields—writing, performing arts, visual arts, anything—to meet, mingle with each other, and hear. The work you’re doing in the sessions can be anything as simple as reading a book or journaling. Or it can be even crazier! Some people build their own robots, make instruments, cook, bake, write, draw, shoot videos, take photos—all types of stuff.
We did a demo session in the spring of my sophomore year—and it's still going on! Right now, we’re thinking about how we can grow it, sustain it, and keep it going after we graduate. The space also showed me that inspiration can come from unexpected sources, because maybe a writer can have an interesting perspective on your visual work or a musician comes in and has good inspiration for your app. You know what I mean? So it's very free–flowing too.
Any last message you’d want people to take away?
Everyone has their own work and what they want to concentrate on. But it’s always good to take a step back and, you know, touch grass. Watch a movie, go out with friends, go to that concert, read a book. It’s really important for your mental health, and you never know where inspiration comes from. You have to enjoy life at the same time.
Lightning Round:
What’s the first animated film you watched? Howl’s Moving Castle
Favorite communities at Penn? Glee Club and SEP.
Dream city to work in: Cliche, but NYC for now.
Where do you feel most at home: My bedroom—and that’s currently in Philly.
A risk you’re glad you took: Applying to school in the United States.
There are two types of people at Penn: People who actually do the readings and people who don’t.
And you are: 20% first one, 80% second one. Haha.
