About Us – Meet the Team

Robyn Kopp

Producer

Robyn is a documentary producer based in San Francisco, CA. Most recently Robyn produced Marlee Matlin: Not ALONE ANYMORE which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in competition followed by SXSW, SFFILM & Tribeca. It was acquired by Kino Lorber and will be released theatrically in summer 2025 followed by a national broadcast on PBS in the fall. Also premiering in 2025 at AmDocs Film Festival is ANY PROBLEM IS NO PROBLEM, a feature documentary about web3 – the film will also play at SF DOCFest & DC/DOX. Robyn served as a producer on the feature film THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT which premiered at the 2024 Dances With FIlms Festival, winning the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Robyn previously produced MAKE A SPLASH which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and aired nationally on ESPN. Previously she served as Associate Producer on the BAFTA nominated film, AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: RUTH TO POWER, which was selected to be the opening night film of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. In 2016, Robyn served as the Associate Producer and Assistant Editor on the Peabody Award winning film, AUDRIE & DAISY, which premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was picked up as a Netflix Original film. Robyn holds a MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University and a BA from Scripps College. She is a proud member of Actual Films, founded by Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk.

Kate McLean

Producer

Kate McLean is a director and producer based in San Francisco. The Hollywood Reporter called her feature film debut “a portrait of a seismic shift,” and a “beautifully etched character study.” Kate produced the 2022 feature documentary WE ARE AS GODS, about counterculture icon Stewart Brand (SXSW 2021, HotDocs, SFFILM, CPH:DOX); Jamie Meltzer’ award winning documentary TRUE CONVICTION, which was broadcast on PBS; and the documentary BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY (SXSW, CPH:DOX, HotDocs, SFFILM, AFI, Traverse City, PBS, Netflix). Kate is a Sundance Creative Producing Summit Fellow, and has a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Jessica Anthony

Producer & Impact Producer

Jessica Anthony produced the 2015 award-winning film THE MASK YOU LIVE IN (Sundance/Netflix) directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. In 2016, Anthony partnered with filmmaker Kelly Duane de la Vega to produce and co-direct the short film SUPREME COURT VS. THE AMERICAN VOTER (NyTimes Op Doc). Also in 2016, she produced director Guetty Felin’s narrative feature AYITI MON AMOUR, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2016 and was shortlisted for an Oscar. Anthony produced and co-directed the award-winning documentary feature IN THE BONES (Atlanta Film Festival 2022/Grasshopper Films), directed and co-produced by Duane de la Vega. Her most recent project, IN WAVES AND WAR, a feature film directed by Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and has shown at film festivals across the country. Additionally, she was a producer on the documentary memoir VIVIEN’S WILD RIDE, an ITVS-supported film by Vivien Hillgrove that premiered at SFFILM in 2025. She is currently in production on POWER & LIGHT, a feature documentary that follows a team of journalists as they embark on an investigative thriller, produced by Actual Films and directed by Duane de la Vega. Jessica has a background in commercial work, animated content, and VFX, is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, a member of the Producers’ Guild of America, and a member of the DPA. 

Serin Marshall

Producer

Serin Marshall is an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer based in Los Angeles. Most recently, she produced the Oscar-nominated LEAD ME HOME which premiered at theTelluride Film Festival before its release on Netflix. Other recent projects include the Netflix films ATHLETE A, for which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, HALFTIME, a documentary about global icon Jennifer Lopez which opened the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, and the Emmy-winning A TRIP TO INFINITY about the search for the infinite. She also produced the Emmy-nominated VEGAS BABY (PBS), as well as VOICES RISING, a documentary series for Disney+ about Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson and the music of WAKANDA FOREVER. Earlier projects include several Liz Garbus films for HBO, including BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD (Sundance 2011), THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH AUNT DIANE, and SHOUTING FIRE: STORIES FROM THE EDGE OF FREE SPEECH (Sundance 2009).

Chris Artherholt

Associate Editor & Post Supervisor

Chris is an editor and producer based in Oakland, CA.  Originally from the Bay Area, Chris spent the first decade of her career in New York City, working on nonfiction programming for the likes of Showtime, HBO, CNN, PBS, NBC, MTV, HGTV, and Travel Channel.  As assistant editor and production coordinator, Chris worked on the Oscar-winning documentary short, STRANGERS NO MORE, as well as HBO’s Emmy-nominated MASTERCLASS series.  She also worked on BEDLAM, which won official selection at Sundance and a duPont-Columbia Award.  Chris is proud to have edited the documentary short, OUT IN ALABAMA, an optimistic look at the LGBTQ+ community in Birmingham, Alabama.  Most recently, she edited WHAT WE CARRY WITH US, a series of micro docs about LGBTQ refugees presented at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco.  Chris holds a BFA in Film & Television from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Joey Horan

Associate Producer & Assistant Editor

Joey Horan is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. His first film, CARL RUNS THE PAPER, is currently screening at festivals. His print and radio reporting have appeared in the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Radio, Outlier Media, Bridge Magazine, and Belt Magazine. He holds a Master’s in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ellie Wen

Associate Producer / Researcher / Assistant Editor

Ellie Wen is an award-winning filmmaker from Hong Kong and Los Angeles. She is an alumna of Film Independent’s Project Involve fellowship program and SFFILM’s FilmHouse Residency Program. Her films have been featured on The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Short of the Week, SoulPancake, selected as Vimeo Staff Pick, and screened at premier festivals around the world. She is a graduate of the Documentary Film MFA Program at Stanford University and currently lives and works in San Francisco.

Alana Romund

Assistant Editor / Production Coordinator

Alana Romund is an assistant editor and production coordinator based in San Francisco, who is currently working on a wholly archival film about climate change. Recently, Alana was Production Coordinator for the Oscar-nominated short documentary LEAD ME HOME, which premiered in the fall of 2021 on Netflix. Previously, she served as Production Coordinator on ATHLETE A, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, and is also streaming on Netflix. Since 2018, she has worked to support all projects across Actual Films’ slate, including as Associate Producer for the TTAKE CARE short film series on whole health and well-being. Before joining Actual Films, Alana worked for Onlych1ld Productions, where she began as a production coordinator and assistant editor in 2016. Alana grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas and holds a BA in Cinema from San Francisco State University. 

João Vieira

Production Coordinator / Assistant Camera

João Vieira is an immigrant documentarian, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Through the use of experimental analog photography and filmmaking techniques, Vieira creates self-reflective narratives that explore concepts of language, distance and form. With a background in film production, analogue mediums and gallery installation, his work has been showcased at the Oaxaca Film Festival, the Voz-Es magazine and the Fundación ACE artist cohort. He is the director of the Fronteiras Anthology and currently works for Actual Films as the production coordinator and office manager. João holds a B.F.A in Visual Media arts from Emerson College.