Jon Kinyon

Jon Kinyon was born and raised in Palo Alto, California, and began making films at age eight after inheriting his grandfather’s Super-8 film camera. His early work included comedy shorts and homemade comic books, popular among his neighborhood peers and schoolmates. Kinyon was significantly influenced by his grandfather, Chapin Kinyon, a vaudeville performer and cartoonist, and his great-uncle Dan Glass, an animator for Fleischer Studios who worked on early Bimbo, Koko the Clown, Popeye, and Betty Boop films. These early experiences and generational inspirations laid the foundation for his diverse career in media.

Kinyon has produced numerous short films, including “God Squad!” in 2002, a comedy parodying Christian and 1970s buddy cop films. This film featured cult actress Julie Strain and actor Al Israel, known for roles in “Scarface.” It premiered at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival and was screened at Tromadance 2003 and the Backseat Film Festival. In 2007, Kinyon released a full-length CD, “Are You Homeless?” by “The Jimi Homeless Experience,” a collection of “Weird Al” Yankovic-styled parodies of Jimi Hendrix’s hits, released on the 40th anniversary of Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced.” This project was inspired by a web-comic Kinyon had published for over a year. He further expanded “The Jimi Homeless Experience” with a stop-motion animation in 2008 and a joke book in 2023.

Jon Kinyon’s professional career in film and television began in 1988. He joined Nickelodeon Animation Studio in 2005, progressing to a Supervising Picture Editor role. In 2020, he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Editing in an Animated Program for his work on the children’s cartoon “Pinky Malinky” (Netflix/Nickelodeon). His television editing credits include “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Dora the Explorer,” “The Fairly OddParents,” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Beyond his editing work, Kinyon is an author, with novels such as “San Francisco’s Hottest Cold Case” (2023), detailing his investigation into his father’s murder, and “Sweet Hitchhiker: The Last Resort” (2023). He also founded and is president of Hot Rod Condoms, a U.S. condom brand launched in 1994.