Stefani Kuo 郭佳怡

april 20 - september 20, 2025. 💕 154 days. 2,655.8 miles. 🇲🇽 mexico to canada 🇨🇦. the pacific crest trail. 🌲 i decided a few months back to make this account less personal & more *professional.* but over the last 5 months, hiking the pct increasingly felt like an accomplishment i feel proudest of, because i did it for me. when i sprained my ankle, & pulled one quad then another, i worried my body wouldn't bounce back, that i'd have to get off trail and go home, but at each turn i returned to trail, not only because i wanted to, but because of the people who kept me going every day. to every friend i made on trail, every trail angel that helped us with a ride or offered us a beverage, treat, meal, or place to stay, to every lake i skinny dipped in, every sunrise i woke up to, every ridge i cowboy camped on, every moonrise & shooting star that i saw, to every fiasco i encountered & every friend who helped me, to the friends who didn't abandon me when my phone broke & the friends who drove overnight to yosemite to bring me a new one, to the friends who waited for me when i thought i needed to get off trail and instead offered to take my pack apart & carry the heaviest things for me, to @blazephysio who helped me recover from every injury i thought would take me off trail, & @sherrstababy for mailing me resupply after resupply, to the trail family who let me tag along behind them in the sierras, and my friends & family who called, texted, wrote me letters, tracked my whereabouts, thank you. i love you all so very much. and to my favourite jokers, @yoopeter_ & @jamienicolsonn , who i spent over 2,000 miles & 4 months with, who always made sure i had a zone to sleep in at night, who never abandoned me even when i was hours behind, who made me laugh every single day, who knew my morning routine & night chores like no one else ever will, i would not have finished the pct or wanted to be at the border with anyone but you. i came to hike the pct alone and left with lifelong friends & family who have changed how i see & want to live my life, & for that i am forever grateful. until next time, next trail, & whatever this next chapter may hold. Not Today Satan ☀️

macdowell pt. 1 🍁 i have put off this post for the last four months because it feels utterly impossible to caption or encapsulate my time at macdowell in a silly instagram carousel. and because going through my 1,000+ photos and videos from my six weeks at @macdowell1907 with these beautiful artists and people made me too nostalgic, too sentimental, and too sad. all i can say is, every late night, every presentation, every lunch basket and bike ride, run and deer sighting, every karaoke/dance party, every single meal that we were cooked and every movie and game that we played is something i will treasure forever. macdowell sincerely changed my life. it changed my artistic practice, how i understand and see myself as a person, artist, friend, citizen in the world. it changed how i experience joy, both in the world and in my work. i got to write three plays and an essay here. i made a zine. i made fires and got to read and watch movies in the stunning baldwin library, go on walks and laugh at myself and my own despair. i was in the best company in the darkest of times, and got to meet people i hope will forever be in my life. i am so profoundly grateful to have met all of you and can only hope that i get the chance to be with you all again 💕 thank you macdowell for having and taking care of me in the most astonishing ways. thank you everyone for letting me be resident paparazzi for a little while after @archivethestudio left. for letting me write down all your quotes & for the nights of @farazfarazfarazfaraz dance moves & bruised knees. for all the stars. i had to choose 20 photos & can't tag more than 20 (!!) for this so there will be more but i had to begin somewhere! if ur not in these pics just know more are coming and in my heart!! i miss you all so very much - and this time and this place, a dream.

Pearl's Beauty Salon • May 2024 • Carlotta New Play Festival 🇭🇰 this play did and continues to have my whole heart / i saw my very first play (Architecture of Rain) produced in the Iseman, and laid on the ground with my sister the night before i graduated college, wondering if i would make another play again; it felt both bittersweet and fitting to leave grad school with a production in this beloved space / thank you to this artistic team, cast, & crew for bringing this literal fantasy of a play and world to life. i could not be more thankful / thank you to everyone who came and saw it and witnessed and listened / and as always, thank you to hong kong, the people i love there and the people who love it and are still fighting for it (sorry & thank you for the big portrait cry close-up sarah, i had to) 🏠 written by (me) directed by @moritamina 🦪 featuring the ever wonderful talented: Bells: @carolineacampos_ Christine/Dramaturg: @shimalidesilva Pearl/Edna: @waichinghohknyc Dad: @kennethleenyc Maru: @hellosarahlo FatCheeks: @emmarsteiner 🦪 stunning, brilliant, life-changing creative team: prod consultant: @sunnyyy1771 scenic: @patrickblanchard costumes: @carolinetysoncostumes lighting: @pandey0506 sound (& original composition!): @1070sound projections: christian killada td: @lavender_hoe dramaturgy: @shyama.iyer intimacy: @kelseytheverysame sm: @auramags asm: @wanderer2 & produced by @erbeanne as with every everything 💕 thank you

Last year, I made a film with my best friends and my brother — inspired by one of those dreamy nights walking around Hong Kong with someone a special someone 😉 We put everything into it. Jeff helped me with the screenplay. @omarknasr flew halfway across the world to work his magic behind the camera. And we enlisted my cousin @ktourfantasy to help put together a kickass crew. Since then, it’s been screened in SF, NY, and LA, and has made its way through film festivals along the way. Now, I finally get to share it with all of you ❤️ If you have a few minutes, I’d love for you to watch it. And if it moves you, it would mean the world to us if you passed it on. Special thanks to @statuskuo13 for her breathtaking performance, @edouardfan for all the late nights editing this with me. And @jasmiccheung for being the most competent media manager 😆 @lukitsalina for being my muse and helping me with every iteration!! Link in bio. #hongkong #wongkarwai #filmmaking

@hudvalleyphoto asked where i'd like to have my photo taken and i jokingly said, "in the water?" and he delivered 💕

in july last year i went to stillwright, a 10-day silent writing retreat at the dwelling place, a monastery run by a group of incredible, kickass benedictine nuns in eastern kentucky. i met some really wonderful writers, and led by erik ehn, we spent 10 days together -- in complete silence. i didn't speak and had my phone off (hence only so very few film shots!).every day i wrote in the chapel, facing a window where one day i saw dani painting and took a picture. i accidentally had my flash on and she looked up; i couldn't tell her until 5 days later that it was my camera she saw - not a lightning flash. every day i went on a run and walk down the road, past the unleashed dogs and men on porches with walkie talkies, and i wrote 200 pages of a novel, about a taiwanese american girl living in eastern kentucky. on our 7th night, erik held a "listening session," and we spent an hour in the living room, and listened to an hour of music. it felt transcendant, having been in such silence for so long. i listened differently! i drew every day and made maps and meditated and wrote a poem when the fedex guy came and no one could verbally speak to him. i am so thankful to stillwright and this wonderful group and brother christian who organised it. and dani!!! who i couldn't talk to for 10 days but then spent 3 days exploring lexington with; cue us going to mammoth cave and not realising while driving that there was a time zone change within the state -- forever grateful to know and love @daniellestagger 💕

got to spend some of my last summer at SPACE on ryder farm with these beautiful people 🍃 missing this place and these stunningly brilliant new friends • the night writing sessions (or being held hostage for fomo), the lake, the food, the books, and spending my birthday out at the lake doing a photoshoot while cackling at adrian and marvin • thank you ryder farm and these people for a dreamy time • thank you everyone who made SPACE a place for artists, I am so grateful I got a chance to be a part of this community • mostly 35 mm film 💕glamour 3rd shot by the brilliant @hudvalleyphoto

Final Boarding Call ✈️ grateful to have spent a week @alliancetheatre in atlanta as part of the Kendeda New Play Festival with @longkji , @muchwandering , nurit chinn, & lia romeo. thank you to this beautiful cast & team & director @ibiowolabi who helped tell this story in atlanta, & to @awatkins280 & @abriannabelvedere for everything everything everything. It was such a gift to share this story with such a generous audience and community, the experience of which has only reminded me that this is why these stories are worth telling. & also WOW the aquarium. I continue to have mixed feelings about what it means to hold wild animals in captivity in spaces such as zoos and aquariums, but for a brief moment, in the biggest aquarium in north america, I was so profoundly in awe of these incredible animals, which reminded me how incredibly vast and deep the world really is, beyond our comprehension.

Arlington by Enda Walsh • March 2024 • Yale Cabaret 🧸 I went to grad school hoping to make and work with lifelong friends and collaborators, and this production felt like the epitome of that. It's funny to have worked on a production as dystopian as this, and found such joy and hope. Eternally grateful to every single one of you amazing people, and I hope to work together again and again and again 💕shout out to the best newspaper stuffed lover & companion @carolinetysoncostumes made me • scroll to the last picture for the goofiest look at the best yale cab leadership team 🐻 directed by @bobbinramsey featuring @samwdouglas @shyama.iyer & me sm @joco54 scenic by @doaaouf & @kylestammdesign costumes by @carolinetysoncostumes sound by @col_of_thewild projections by @doaaouf prod by @romansanchez001 td @miguel.angel.lopez.zamudio photos by the imitable @doaaouf yale cab team @annabelguevara @doaaouf @kylestammdesign

a year and a half belated but loved getting these headshots from @josephomalleyarts , who was lovely to work with! the hair no longer looks like this but hopefully the spirit still does!! 💕

[did not shave my head for production / did, however, shave it to see what the shape of it looked like; and it was very liberating!! to not be able to hide behind even hair!] Merry Wives of Windsor • Elm Shakespeare Company • August-September 2023 first outdoor shakespeare production! was a real gift to play fenton & nim & to also watch @michaelallyncrawford swat at moths backstage in the park every night like his life depended on it, try not to laugh audibly at @malachibeasley_ 's bits, @abbyy_onw doing dare push ups on stage, or gossip too loudly with @terra_chaney (love of my stage life). Was so thankful to learn from and work with @classicalmassie @dainga13 @waltonwilson59 (in awe always of your singing and stage presence! and you telling us mosquito candles are absolutely useless), Martine Fleurisma, James Andreassi, @nanimaker1 , @michaeljasberry , Mekhi Robertson, Altas Salter, Colleen Wilson, Oliver Barber, Hannah Leamon ❤️ last two pics / in my hot shaved head era / rip directed by @dmw_directs costumes by @rebecca.l.welles conceptual sound by Nathan A. Roberts set & props by Karen Root lighting by Jamie Burnett sm'd by Cameron Jackson & @terysamalootian photos by Isabel Chenoweth @elmshakespeare

Moonie • October 2023 • Yale Cabaret • 🌙 ohhhh myyy I never thought I'd write or perform a solo show but the time came and the best yale cab team asked if I'd pitch and one of my best friends Jisun egged me on and then it was October and we had to put on a show and so, and so, Moonie was born: a story about a woman who has turned 30 and decides to go on 100 first dates in one year; but really, a story about a woman who is so afraid of her mother dying, she'll do anything to keep her alive. I played Moonie and her mom, some ladies in a spa and so so so so many men. And it was both a joy and a terrifying endeavour. This play was scary to write and so hard to do - every evening before the show, I'd lay on the ground or the table of the dressing room and panic, telling Jisun my stomach was hurting so bad I couldn't do the show. And how could I do the show? I was going to forget everything and nothing was going to be good. But every night, Jisun would rub my tummy and tell me I could. That we could. And we did it. And did it. And it was so special, it made me believe I could do anything, that we could do anything because I was working with the most phenomenal people, and every rehearsal was so fun and silly and make believe. Every night when I went on that stage and saw the audience in the room, I remembered that's what we do - we connect with people and tell a story. And I am so thankful I got the chance to tell this one with the most incredible team. Thank you thank you. 🌕 Written & Performed by @statuskuo13 Directed by @sunnyyy1771 Photos by @misssuzuque Producer, Assistant Director: @acynicalfish Dramaturg: M.L. Roberts Scenic Designer: @misssuzuque Costume Designer: Theo DuBois Lighting Designers: @yhsung.design @pandey0506 Projection Designer: @seedonmars Assistant Projection Designer: @ahhake Sound Designer: @realjoegrind868 Stage Manager: @charlie.lovejoy Technical Director: @leo.surach 🌖 thank you to the most unbelievable cab team who ok'ed this project off of a pitch & zero pages but who had full faith in me and this play @doaaouf @annabelguevara @kylestammlightingdesign