Thangkhankhup Hanghal, aka Khup/Kooper, is a transmedial creative practitioner, researcher, writer, and curator. A graduate of the School of Arts and Aesthetics (SAA), Jawaharlal Nehru University, he has been part of the curation and exhibition of several shows including, Shadow Circus: A Personal Archive of Tibetan Resistance (1957–1974) with White Crane Films at SAA (February 2024); Lengkhawm: Lamka Remembered with This Is Lamka at the India International Center, New Delhi (July 2024); A Recalcitrant Aesthetics: Body, Revolution, and the Nation Reimagined, with Anant Art Gallery and Anant Art Foundation at SAA (November 2024) featuring the works of Vikrant Bhise; Ki Tui Ton (KTT) with Young Tribal Women’s Network at SAA (April 2025) in collaboration with artists-in-exile in solidarity and support to the March 2025 earthquake of Myanmar and the resistance against the military junta. KTT also featured his mixed-media installation, The One in Front of The Gun Lives Forever (2025). 

As an academic, he has written and presented papers including Limlaak: A Photographic History of Lamka, #YouTubeNewWave, Zomi Kahi, Zumpih Kei Ning: A Study of Gam Ngaih Laa and Resistance, and Love in the Time of VHS: Material Decay and Cultural Memory in Paite-Zomi Cinema at various conferences. His first published academic piece, Not Just Another Bollywood Guy: Examining the Subversive Stardom of Danny Denzongpa, appeared in E-CineIndia, India Chapter of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI-India) for the Oct–Dec 2024 edition. He also holds a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies (DU) for which he was awarded the Mitsubishi India Corporation Scholarship (2021). 

He speaks Paite, English, Hindi, Bengali, and some Japanese.