Brianna Nicole Kupfer was born on April 9, 1997, she was one of four children born to Todd and Lori Kupfer. 

Kupfer was born and raised in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Kupfer attended Brentwood High School, where she was a member of various sports teams, captain of the cheerleading team, and participated in other extracurricular activities. 

In 2019, Kupfer graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in public relations. She enrolled in a graduate program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to study architectural design. Kupfer worked as a consultant at Croft House, a luxury furniture store in the neighborhood of Hancock Park.

The murder of Brianna Kupfer occurred on January 13, 2022, in which a 24-year-old white women University of California, Los Angeles student was murdered by Shawn Laval Smith, a 31-years-old black man, in Los Angeles, California. Smith, a 31-year-old man with an extensive criminal record, stabbed Kupfer to death in the Croft House store where she was working in the Hancock Park neighborhood. A few minutes later, a customer found Kupfer's stabbed body, covered in blood. Kupfer was pronounced dead that day.

The high-profile search for the murder suspect became one of the biggest in the Southern California region, with a $250,000 reward offered. 
On January 19, Smith was found and arrested in Pasadena, California, and charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances and use of a deadly weapon during the commission of the murder. The prosecutor in charge of the case said that Kupfer's murder was motivated by Smith's hatred of women.

In September 2024, a jury of the Los Angeles County found Smith guilty of both charges. In October 2024, Smith was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.