About Us – Meet the Team

Robyn Kopp

Producer

Robyn Kopp is a producer based in San Francisco, CA. Most recently Robyn produced MAKE A SPLASH ESPN’s part of the Fifty/50 Shorts series. Previously she served as Associate Producer on the BAFTA nominated film, AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH 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. In addition to her producing work, Robyn served as co-director on the independent, successfully crowd funded documentary series about HIV Prevention called The PrEP Project, which has over 300,000 views on social media platforms. Since 2014, Robyn has worked at Actual Films alongside filmmakers Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk and Richard Berge to produce a broad range of film & video projects across departments. Robyn holds a MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University.

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

Jessica Anthony is a producer, writer, director and impact strategist with over two decades of experience in live action, animation and visual effects.  In 2015 she produced the 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 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, a magical neo-realistic fable set in Haiti, which premiered at Toronto 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) a project supported by Sundance, Ford Foundation, IDA, and Catapult, directed and co-produced by de la Vega. Her most recent projects include the upcoming documentary memoir VIVIEN’S WILD RIDE, an ITVS supported film by Vivien Hillgrove that follows a visual artist as she loses her sight, and IN WAVES AND WAR, a feature documentary that follows a group of retired Navy SEALs who find hope in a Mexican clinic where they undergo psychedelic-assisted therapy, directed by Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen. Jessica is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and lives in the San Francisco Bay.

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).

Julie Hwang

Director of Post Production Supervisor / Associate Editor

Julie Hwang is an MIT graduate who left an electrical engineering career making microchips because she wanted to make movies. After working as an Associate Producer on Mye Hoang’s feature debut, VIETTE, Julie moved to the Bay Area and began working in post-production. Julie has designed and managed intricate post-production workflows and provided creative editorial assistance on numerous award-winning films and television series. She was the Associate Editor on Oscar-winning filmmaker Louis Psihoyos’ film THE GAME CHANGERS and Post-Production Supervisor for director Jacqueline Olive’s ALWAYS IN SEASON, a saga of racial terrorism and reconciliation honored at Sundance in 2019 with a Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency. More recently, she edited Katie Austin’s award winning short comedy film AUBERGINE and was a co-editor on the Apple TV+ series LINCOLN’S DILEMMA. Julie first joined Actual Films in 2019 as Associate Editor on ATHLETE A, and is excited to return to the company and step into a new role as Director of Post-Production.

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.

Chris Artherholt

Associate Editor

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.

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.

Tony Mitchell

Executive Assistant / Officer Manager

Tony Mitchell is an Office Manager and Executive Assistant based in San Francisco. Originally from the Bay Area, Tony spent the first decade of his career in Los Angeles, working on network dramas for the likes of Fox, ABC, and the CW. Before joining Actual Films, Tony worked for Kitsis + Horowitz Productions where he worked as an Executive Assistant and Writers’ Assistant. Tony holds a BFA in Television, Film, and Media Studies from Cal State LA.