Torill Kove was born and raised in Norway, then moved to Canada where she continued her education and worked in urban planning for several years. Her childhood hobby of drawing and sketching grew into an interest in animation, and she returned to school to study animation at Concordia University in Montreal, winning the Kodak Award for her quirky films All You Can Eat, Fallen Angel and Squash and Stretch. Torill worked in a variety of roles on several National Film Board of Canada productions and wrote the script for the animated short Snails, by the Norwegian filmmaker Pjotr Sapegin. She has also illustrated three children's books. Torill's first professional film, My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, won numerous international awards and was nominated for an Oscar. Her film, The Danish Poet (2006), won the Oscar for Best Short Animation in 2007.