Karen Aqua has been making animated films since her graduation from Rhode Island School of Design in 1976. Her award-winning films have been screened nationally and internationally, including at the New York Film Festival, and at international animation festivals in Zagreb, Hiroshima, Ottawa, and Annecy (France.)

She has received film production grants from the American Film Institute, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, New England Film/Video Fellowship Program, New Forms Regional Initiative, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Puffin Foundation.

She has been artist-in-residence at The MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation, Millay Colony, Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain).

Aqua was a Lecturer in Animation at Boston College from 1984-1991, and Animation Instructor at Emerson College in 1987. She has served as a juror for major animation and film festivals in the US and Canada, and has presented one-person screenings of her work at museums and universities around the US, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), California Institute of the Arts, Dartmouth College, and University of Oregon.

Since 1990 she has produced, directed, and animated 22 segments for the acclaimed “Sesame Street” television program.