How old is Kyra Gardner? Westworld actor Jimmi Simpson's girlfriend shuts down allegations of being groomed over age gap

Kyra Gardner, who has been in a relationship with Westworld actor Jimmi Simpson for over a year, recently addressed the criticism stemming from their 20-year age gap.

People have been accusing Jimmi Simpson of grooming 27-year-old Kyra Gardner on multiple online platforms. However, Gardner refuted the claims in a comment below a TikTok video shared on March 24, 2025.

As reported by Just Jared, Kyra alleged that there is a stalker who claims Jimmi shared a close relationship with her father, and that Gardner and Simpson have known each other since Kyra’s teenage years. Kyra Gardner stated that her father did not know Jimmi Simpson and that she was the one who introduced them.

“I met him briefly interviewing him for my job on this film. I was 22. Never interacted again until re-meeting this night. Didn’t start dating til I was 26. It’s an age gap but certainly not grooming. Every 1 wanting to push that false narrative is gross & I don’t know why you want it to be a grooming story.”

The video where Gardner commented featured her on the red carpet at a film premiere, where she was meant to speak with celebrities. She also wrote alongside the clip:

“She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll meet the love of her life that night, and is actually looking at a photo of him on the paper she’s holding.”

According to the Daily Mail, Kyra and Jimmi were first seen together at the premiere of the Apple TV+ series Dark Matter in January 2024. Kyra has been active in the world of filmmaking for many years and is known for her work on projects such as The Dollhouse and Phoebe.

Although Kyra’s comments are trending everywhere, Jimmi has yet to respond to the criticism from his side.

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Kyra Gardner has made various projects as a filmmaker over the years

According to Kyra’s IMDb bio, she was born to special effects expert Tony Gardner, and her family also includes Brianna Gardner. Brianna pursued a brief career as an actress, appearing in Shallow Hal, and later began working in special effects and makeup on films such as Cult of Chucky.

Kyra Gardner has multiple films credited to her as a filmmaker, including Living with Chucky, which was released through the streaming service Screambox in 2023.

In an interview with The Pitch magazine the same year, Kyra opened up about how she began preparing for the documentary. She explained that it was initially a seven-minute short film she made during her time at Florida State University, titled The Dollhouse.

Kyra Gardner mentioned that The Dollhouse also featured her father and Don Mancini, who directed the first film in the Child’s Play franchise.

“I had to really hone it into what the essence of it was, which was the family aspect. That became the through line that I wanted to create the feature to get to, When I started working on it was after I had received so much positive attention from the short film and realized Chucky fans actually would wanna see something like this. I should put it into a feature.”

Kyra Gardner has also won numerous awards over the years for her work on different films. She received the DGA Award for Best Female Student Director for her film Phoebe, which was released in 2019, according to IMDb. Additionally,

Kyra was just 16 when her short film, Past Presence, was chosen in the First Time Film-Maker category at the 39th Annual Cleveland International Film Festival. Past Presence also achieved notable recognition, including selection at the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival.

According to IMDb, The Dollhouse was later chosen for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and was included as a bonus feature on the DVD and Blu-ray of Cult of Chucky, which was released in 2017.