Early career and directorial debut (2006–2021) Appelhans began his career in film as a character designer and
concept artist on
Monster House (2006); Shortly after, he pitched a live-action film to the executives at ImageMovers, who bought the idea and, at the direction of owner
Robert Zemeckis, hired Appelhans to write the screenplay. In the following years, Appelhans sold and developed another screenplay for
Laika, which was also not
greenlit. The film is about a college student's encounter with a
dragon who has the power to grant
three wishes; it was based on his friendship with Michael Wu, a cousin of his colleague he met during a visit to China in 2014. and on
Netflix internationally on June 11, 2021.
KPop Demon Hunters and subsequent success (2021–present) Following the production of
Wish Dragon, its producer
Aron Warner introduced Appelhans to
Maggie Kang, who had first pitched Warner the idea that eventually became
KPop Demon Hunters, an animated film about a K-pop girl group that hunts demons secretly. Appelhans had also worked with Kang's husband,
Radford Sechrist, on
Wish Dragon. According to Kang, she and Appelhans met over lunch and "bonded immediately"; He stated that he "always wanted to do a film about the power of music—to unite, bring joy, build community". Production wrapped four years later in 2025, and the film was released on Netflix on June 20, 2025.
Puck reported that, due to the success of the film, Kang and Appelhans successfully negotiated a five-year, $10 million per annum contract with Netflix for the sequel, which includes a share of
ancillary revenue from the franchise. == Illustration career ==