‘Lesbian Space Princess’ is a queer story from a BIPOC perspective
Directors Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs' debut film follows an anxious princess on a quest to rescue her ex-girlfriend
From left, "Lesbian Space Princess" directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese.
Kyahm Ross
Words by Devan Suber
Adult animation doesn’t often spotlight people like writers and animators Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs. Their directorial debut feature Lesbian Space Princess—which is releasing digitally on Tuesday—follows the anxious Princess Saira as she embarks on a quest to rescue her ex-girlfriend.
I spoke with the two of them recently to discuss its creation.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Devan Suber: How did you two come together initially?
Leela Varghese: Well, we had been dating and there was an initiative to give first-time feature directors from under-represented voices funding to make a film. We thought, “Why not ruin our relationship and apply together?” [Laughs] We didn’t think we’d get picked.
Emma Hough Hobbs: We applied for the initiative with Lesbian Space Princess. We had the title and the idea of this shy, anxious space princess. We developed with the South Australian Film Corporation script mentor for a year, and by the end we had the production draft.
DS: Leela, you’d done a short with lead voice actor Shabana (Azeez) earlier. How did you two initially meet?
LV: She’s been in every single short film I’ve ever made. We were also in a comedy band. She used to work at this funding body when she was just a little baby.
EHH: I think she was still in uni.
LV: At that point, she wanted to be an actor, but hadn’t auditioned for anything. One of my friends discovered her through casting a short film. Everyone always thinks I discovered Shabana, but I just kind of stole her. There’s something just magnetic about her talent and her voice as a performer.
Saira (voiced by Shabana Azeez) in "Lesbian Space Princess."
Still frame from "Lesbian Space Princess"
DS: Lesbian Space Princess premiered a couple months before The Pitt, which became an Emmy-winning phenomenon. What was it like watching her ascent?
LV: It’s so exciting. We’re like giggly little kids watching the Emmys. You see how hard they work, you know how talented they are, and you know the adversity they’ve faced. It’s just really lovely to watch somebody get to where they need to be.
DS: How have you had to navigate being a queer person of color?
LV: Shabana and I have found that we weren’t celebrated the most in Australia. Pursuing success internationally has been quite empowering and enriching. Sometimes you’re just lucky to find people who come from similar backgrounds—I’m South Indian, she’s Fijian Indian. I wouldn’t say Australia has conquered representation yet.
DS: Transphobia in feminism has become such a major issue politically, was that something you were aware of when writing?
LV: It’s hard as a queer artist because you obviously are aware, but you’re also trying to write something authentic to you and your perspective. It’s really scary what’s happening over in the UK.
EHH: We were really conscious of things like the labrys (a double-headed axe). It used to be a TERF symbol and we debated including it. In the end, we put it in the film because it should belong to all lesbians, including trans lesbians. Queen LeighAnn—who is a trans woman—is shown (in the film) summoning the labrys in trans colors. We felt the positive representation of inclusion was more powerful.
LV: People experience a film how they experience a film. We’re not afraid for it to be a source of conversation.
Kiki (voiced by Bernie Van Tiel) is the ex-girlfriend who Saira has to rescue in "Lesbian Space Princess."
Still frame from "Lesbian Space Princess"
DS: What were your influences going into this project and designing the characters?
EHH: The ethos is that it looks like a cartoon but feels like an anime—like Adventure Time meets Invader Zim, with a really queer lens on it.
LV: Emma is an animator herself, so all the characters and style come from her.
DS: Among the most famous cast members are sketch comedy trio Aunty Donna. How did they join?
LV: Yeah, Emma and (producer) Tom Phillips both had this debate about who had the thought first. There were always three Maliens, but they weren’t necessarily all talking as much. Initially they said, “We can do this exactly like it’s in the script.” And then we explained to them that we really wanted to see what they want to do and see their fun. It was improv, but built on the bones of what the script needed to be.
DS: There’s a lot of varying styles musically. Were there any specific references?
LV: We really wanted the hero instrument of the movie to be acoustic guitar. Very early on I asked, “What if we did the whole movie only using acoustic guitar?” Mike Darrin, our sound designer, suggested we elevate it, and he’s so right. It’s a bit chaotic in the sense that the movie is kind of chaotic, and we gave him lots of different references.
EHH: You found the song “Rush-E,” and reached out to Sheet Music Boss directly to license it.
LV: Yeah. They said, “We love some queer Australian animation, we’ll give you the track for free.” Also, a lot of the background music in the club is local indie bands. I think that made it feel like a much higher budget film than it was.
Fillmakers Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs say the ethos of "Lesbian Space Princess" is that it looks like a cartoon but feels like an anime.
Still frame from "Lesbian Space Princess"
DS: How did you find the sweet spot when writing jokes in terms of specificity?
EHH: We wrote it trying to make each other laugh. Leela’s amazing at writing really funny dialogue, while my comedy is very high-risk high-reward, so our two senses of humor meshed together.
LV: We kept each other accountable. We weren’t really trying to make a “cool” movie. We were trying to make something we found fun.
DS: One of my favorite bits in the film is when they pull up the Wikipedia page to explain the labrys. Were those visual gags also part of the writing process?
EHH: We had a really small team of two animators, two background artists, and a compositor, all working in the same office. We created an environment where anyone could contribute.
LV: For example, the Chick Magnet is in the script, but the specifics are all the background artist. We weren’t precious, necessarily. We wanted to bring it to life in the best way possible.
DS: We’re approaching time, so I wanted to ask what projects you guys have on the horizon.
EHH: We’ve got TV ideas, we’ve got feature ideas, we’ve got animated ideas, we’ve got live action ideas—sometimes together, sometimes separately. There’s so many more fun, lighthearted queer stories to tell from a POC perspective. We’re ready to get working and writing new stuff.
Published on November 18, 2025
Words by Devan Suber
Devan Suber is a Philadelphia-based freelance film and TV critic whose work has appeared in such outlets as IGN, The AV Club, Polygon, The Film Stage, and many more. You can find him on Twitter @therealdsube or Bluesky @therealdsube.bsky.