Lesley Ung

Lesley is a lecturer in the Animation, Visual Effects & Game Design (AVG) major at Auckland University of Technology. She has an immense passion for animation, painting, theory, pre-production and drawing. Her interests are also in autoethnographic inquiry to make, think and feel. In turn, her Masters research was about 2D (hand-drawn) animation as a tool, to grapple with subjective feelings and experiences of death, loss and the grieving process.

Currently, she is refining her skills further as a Master's Supervisor (co-supervision), Examiner, Animator/Colourist and Lecturer. Previously, Lesley has worked with the Good Health Design Lab (GHD), Waitemata District Health Board (WDHB) and Auckland Regional Dental Service (ARDS). She has also worked as an Editor/Copyeditor, Graphic Designer, Teaching Assistant and completed Brightside's Design Your Life and Future Focus programmes. 

Lesley’s research has been featured in a range of conferences, symposiums, film festivals, and award programmes, including SIGGRAPH Asia (2025), the Creative Technology and Transformative Storytelling Symposium (2025), the AUT Postgraduate Research Symposium (2025), the 2nd Animex Research and Innovation Conference (2024), Animation Under the Lens: Embracing Diverse Perspectives (2024), the 35th Society for Animation Studies Conference, Animating Change (2024), the 29th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Everywhen (2024), the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards (2023), Khabarovsk International Animation Film Festival Animur (2023), FOCUS Wales Film Festival (2023), Neum Animated Film Festival (2023), PSAF Streamtacular (2023), the Student World Impact Film Festival (2023), and the Dying.dialogues Symposium (2023).