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Zhen Li  is a Chinese-born animation artist best known for her animated short films. She was trained as an architect before turning to filmmaking. With a strong spatial instinct, she works primarily in traditional animation to tell stories of intimacy and misalignment.

In 2023, her CalArts first-year short fur, a film about a crush gone moldy, screened at Sundance and Annecy, while winning the Oscar-qualifying Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short at Seattle IFF and the Anča Award for Best Student Animated Short. In 2024 and 2025, her ongoing thesis film has received funding from Rooftop Films and supporting residencies at Yaddo and Filmværksted Viborg. She is also the 2023 recipient of the Stephen Hillenburg Animation Honor of the Princess Grace Award.

Zhen received a BA in architecture and psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA in experimental animation from California Institute of the Arts. 

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