Karena Evans facts for kids

Karena Evans (born December 17, 1995) is a talented Canadian director and actress. She became well-known for directing music videos for the famous rapper Drake. These include his hit songs "God's Plan", "Nice for What", and "In My Feelings", which all reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 2018.

Karena also directed the music video for "Luther", a popular song by Kendrick Lamar and Sza released in 2025. She won the Best Director award at the 2018 iHeartRadio MMVAs and was the first woman to receive the Prism Prize's Lipsett Award for her amazing work in music video direction.

Besides directing, Evans has acted in the TV series Mary's Story. She also had a main role in the 2018 independent film Firecrackers, which was first shown at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2020, Karena directed the very first episode of the Starz drama series P-Valley. She also directed episodes for the fourth and fifth seasons of the FX crime drama Snowfall, and the first two episodes of the HBO Max Gossip Girl reboot.

Karena Evans: A Director's Journey

How Karena Started Directing

Karena Evans began her career in the music industry by working as an intern for a well-known director named Director X. She learned a lot from him. Eventually, she was signed as a director to his music video production company, Popprok.

Since then, Karena has directed many music videos for different artists. These include Belly and Sean Paul. She has also directed commercials for big brands like Nike, Inc.. One notable commercial was a short film for Black Lives Matter.

Directing Hit Music Videos

In early 2018, Karena Evans gained a lot of attention. She directed the music video for Drake's song "God's Plan". This video became incredibly popular online and the song quickly reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The video showed Drake giving away his $1 million production budget to people in Miami.

After that, Evans directed Drake's "Nice for What" music video. This video was highly praised by many critics. Karena herself described the video as a "celebration of women". It featured many famous female stars like Olivia Wilde and Issa Rae. Vogue magazine even said that Evans was "surely destined to be the starriest young video director".

Later in 2018, she made history by becoming the first woman to win the Prism Prize's Lipsett Award for directing music videos. Director X, her mentor, congratulated her online. He shared how she started as an intern and worked harder than everyone else. He was very proud of her success.

In May 2018, SZA released a music video for her song "Garden (Say It Like Dat)", which featured Donald Glover and was directed by Evans. Karena then signed with WME, a major talent agency. That summer, she also directed Drake's music videos for "I'm Upset" and "In My Feelings".

In late 2018, Evans received nominations for her work on Drake's videos at the IHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards and MTV Video Music Award. She won Best Director at the 2018 iHeartRadio MMVAs for "God's Plan". In 2020, Karena was named one of BET's "Future 40". This list highlights 40 inspiring young Black leaders who are changing the world.

Karena Evans: Acting Roles

As an actress, Karena Evans started her career in 2016. She had a role in a short film called WhiteWoods. In 2018, she starred in two feature films. One was Michael Sucsy's Every Day. The other was Jasmin Mozaffari's Firecrackers, where she acted alongside Michaela Kurimsky. Firecrackers was first shown at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. In the same year, she also had a recurring role in the Canadian TV series Mary's Story.

Who Inspired Karena Evans?

Karena Evans is the younger sister of Jordan Evans, who is a music producer. Her brother inspired her to follow her dreams in the entertainment world. Karena has said that she is greatly influenced by Melina Matsoukas, another director whom she calls her "hero". Karena hopes to inspire other young black women from her hometown of Toronto to pursue their passions.

Karena Evans: Film and TV Work

Movies

TV Shows

Music Videos Directed