I'm Not A Female Editor. I'm An Editor.

I'm not a female editor. I'm an editor.

This month's panel will focus on the experience of being a female editor in our industry. We'll discuss how to break down gender barriers, the challenges of proving you can cut like the boys, and finally, we'll ask our editor friends what they'd like us to know so we can all be better allies.

Erika Anaya (Co-Moderator)

Erika Anaya is a creative marketer and strategist, with a wealth of experience in Film, Digital, and TV marketing. Currently, she is an Executive Producer and Head of Multicultural at AV Squad, where she has worked on campaigns for Hustlers, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Bright, Blade Runner 2049, andThe 13th. She also leads multicultural creative and strategy for the agency.

Prior to her position at AV Squad, she worked at Walt Disney Studios and Universal Pictures.

Erika is a native Angeleno (yes, we exist!), who in her spare time loves to travel, discover new restaurants, watch old-timey movies, and trek through NELA with her husband, Lee, and their dogs, Boris & Oliver.

Tiz Simpson (Co-Moderator)

Simpson is a Producer and Editor at Buddha Jones. The road to Buddha started in the mid-90’s with 8 years at New Wave Entertainment, 6 years at Intralink and 6 years at Acme. Over the course of her career she has worked on campaigns such as: The DaVinci Code, The Dark Knight, Labor Day, Phantom Thread, On The Basis of Sexand more recently the Documentary for Netflix’s Knock Down The House, Sony’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,and Fox Searchlight’s Ready or Not. 

She was born and raised in West Philadelphia (yes you can sing the Fresh Prince of Bel Air song in your head now) and moved out to LA after graduating from Drexel University in 1994. She is a mom to Alexander (12) and Talia (8). She and hubby Andrew, who is the Senior Editor at Picture Head, just celebrated their 20-year wedding anniversary this may. Oh, and to make life even more interesting they have 3 fur babies as well...Orion, Tonka and Eddie. Life is definitely a constant balance of work, mom, wife and remembering to take care of herself!

Alyssa Aldaz

Alyssa Aldaz is currently an editor at AV Squad. For the last 10 years, she’s excelled in the trailer industry bringing a versatile style and distinct voice to her work.  Alyssa’s passion for music drives her to re-imagine cues in unexpected ways.  

Her career highlights include trailers for The Lion King, The Greatest Showman, and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vileincluding a Super Bowl spot for X-men Apocalypse. 

Alyssa lives in the valley with her partner Carli and their 3 senior rescue animals, Wilma, Moxie, and Francis. 

Aura Kay

Aura Kay is currently a preditor at BLT’s newly revamped AV department. Some of her favorite and recent-ish campaigns include: Onward, Glass, Searching, Bad Times at the El Royale, Thor: Ragnarok, andMe Before You.

Prior to BLT, she edited at Aspect and Giaronomo.

A transplant from Nor-Cal but calls LA her home, her husband is also a trailer editor. When they aren’t busy making movies look awesome, they spend time with their precocious 6-year-old son and two snuggly kitties.

Kathleen Philips

Kathleen Philips is a Senior Editor/Producer at BOND.  Prior to BOND, she worked at AV Squad, Open Road, mOcean and Mojo.

Kathleen is proud of her editorial work on trailers for Mad Max: Fury Road, Maleficent, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Godzilla, Dark Knight Rises, but even more proud of her work parenting her (almost) 10-year-old daughter, Marlowe. In her spare time, she goes to rocks shows and flea markets and is diligently learning how to keep plants alive.

Zoey Grolman

Zoey Grolman works as a Trailer Editor at Seismic Productions. She has worked on a wide range of marketing campaigns, a few of them being Aladdin, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Midsommar, The Spy Who Dumped Meand The L Word: Generation Q.

Prior to Seismic, she has worked at Vibe Creative and AV Squad.

She is an East Coast girl, originally from York, Pennsylvania. From a very young age, she knew she wanted to be a trailer editor. After graduating college, she lived in Manhattan for a year, then made the big move to Los Angeles. She has been in LA for about 5 years now and when she has free time enjoys traveling, drinking wine, eating, and meeting new people.