Contributors

Headshot
Co-host

Ariel Leigh Cohen

Ariel Leigh Cohen is a certified Intimacy Coordinator (IDC), and an Intimacy Director based in Los Angeles, known for her collaborative spirit and nuanced approach to choreographing vulnerability. Since relocating to LA in 2019, she’s found her true calling as an Intimacy Professional, committed to fostering creative environments where every intimate scene is handled with care, clarity, and cultural competence.

Her specialties include period pieces, queer intimacy, kink, DV/Non-Consensual dynamics, and comedy (because awkward, tender, and sexy often go hand in hand). Ariel offers professional, compassionate, and culturally sensitive guidance to ensure every moment of intimacy is safe, intentional, and unforgettable.


https://www.intimacy-coordinator.com/
Headshot
Co-host

Morgan Smith

Morgan Smith is an Intimacy Professional based in LA. Her work has appeared in features, pilots, new media, student films, and plays.

Select film work includes the features Find Your Friends, directed by Izabel Pakzad (Industry Select TIFF 2025), and Nobody Moves ‘Til Jesus Comes (Official Dances with Films Selection 2024). 

By combining consent-based practices with choreography, she creates environments where artists feel empowered to take bold risks and do their best work. She stays flexible in her approach to support the team in whatever way is most helpful to them. 

Morgan’s specialties include queer intimacy, comedy, drama, and consent, including complicated consent and non-consent. She supports productions with inclusive, thoughtful, professional, trauma-informed, and culturally competent choreography.

https://www.thisismorgansmith.com/

Guests

Headshot
Guest

Amanda Holland

Amanda Holland is an award-winning comedy writer/filmmaker. You may recognize her if you were chronically online in the mid 2010s from BuzzFeed Videos or  from the show Drunk Lesbians Watch on her channel GirlShipTV, now Fruity TV on YouTube. You can listen to her on her podcast “On The Phone” with Ash Perez, and more importantly, if you are looking to fund queer movies or TV, you can DM her now! She’s got a lot of ideas.

https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2F%40fruitytelevision%3Fsi%3DRnLxZLaFjNXcs8z5%26fbclid%3DPAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnTqTKO2tYmIR7xrBatoGXGWYKYC4x-1ujJluUpw6VDYKp4RdjAxXaLyewqm8_aem_HNld_JqCulqBP_clwH3LLg&e=AUDZACkc619Uumpeo4_Xfn2UxMH1YfrPxqxuOh0aypi-rksk8eTtWcnq1ruc4cObZqieEPieWv7nV7xWNGzCCVlaPvV67BXQmx514C7EdgYktWD1uAK6ebZgwzz8_O7E0WALu6S2JbOb-bYSAecwJ1BnNJjs
Headshot
Guest

Brooke M. Haney

Brooke M. Haney is a NYC-based intimacy coordinator, choreographer, and author, and one of the first 50 professionals recognized as qualified by SAG-AFTRA, with credits spanning film, TV, and theatre both in the U.S. and internationally. They’re also the editor of The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook, and they were the intimacy coordinator for productions including Mayor of Kingstown, Law and Order: SVU, and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.

https://www.brookemhaney.com/
Headshot
Guest

Steven Canals

Steven Canals is the Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning co-creator, executive producer, writer, and director of FX’s POSE (2018-2021), which featured the largest transgender cast in TV history. 

Steven's work on POSE received two AFI Awards for TV Program of the Year, three GLAAD Media Awards for 'Outstanding Drama Series,' plus Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominations for Best Drama Series, among other accolades. Steven also received nominations from the Writers Guild Awards for 'Outstanding New Series' and the Imagen Awards for 'Best Director - Television.' 

A groundbreaking Queer, Afro-Puerto Rican creator, Steven has been named to The Hollywood Reporter's 50 Most Powerful LGBTQ Players in Hollywood, and one of Hollywood’s 50 Most Powerful TV Showrunners. Steven is currently directing episodically while developing new projects that center the stories of historically underrepresented communities under his Story Ave. Productions banner.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6955079/