The Team
Mikaela Shwer
Director, Producer, Editor
Alana Maiello
Producer
Robyn Kopp
Producer
Kimberly Stuckwisch
Producer
Kate Logan
Producer
Alexandra Marske
Co-Producer
Alexandra Nikolchev
Co-Producer
Veronica Pinkham
Editor
Will Allegra-Garofalo
Editor
Autumn Eakin
DP
Benjamin Messelbeck
Composer
Mikaela is an award-winning documentary editor and filmmaker known for crafting powerful, intimate stories that resonate deeply with audiences. Her debut feature, Don’t Tell Anyone/No Le Digas a Nadie (PBS/POV), earned the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, and her follow-up, The Kids Are Not Alright, is currently making waves on the festival circuit, collecting multiple Audience and Director awards.
Mikaela's editing collaborations include acclaimed projects for Netflix, HBO, PBS, Hulu, and Apple TV. She served as editor, writer, and co-producer on HBO’s Allen v. Farrow, a four-part series that received seven Primetime Emmy nominations along with nominations from American Cinema Editors, Cinema Eye Honors, and the Hollywood Professional Association. Her recent credits include editing on Netflix’s record-breaking Harry & Meghan, HBO’s Last Call, praised for its empathy and nuance; and Netflix’s Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer, where she served as lead editor and story producer, earning recognition for its focus on the victims and the systemic failures surrounding their cases.
Mikaela is also deeply engaged in investigative and socially conscious storytelling. She is an Associate of the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and has been recognized as a fellow by the Logan Nonfiction Program, the Film Independent Documentary Lab, and the Dart Center Documentary Film Fellowship.
Alana Maiello is a director and producer passionate about telling deeply human and nuanced stories that pose challenging questions and create empathy. Alana’s feature documentary CHEWED GUM will spotlight survivors of sexual and domestic violence in the LDS community in Utah. Alana’s short documentary film Esfuerzo won the Audience Award for Best Picture at the 2018 Oceanside International Film Festival and was featured on Univision’s La Primera Hora. Alana recently directed a featurette for PEACOCK’s television series APPLES NEVER FALL, where she interviewed actor Annette Bening and showrunner Melanie Marnich. Alana is a freelance Director, Interviewer, and Production Manager for behind-the-scenes filming and talent interviews with the following Peacock and HBO Max series: Five Star Weekend, All Her Fault, TED 2, Hacks, Westworld, The Flight Attendant, Barry, The Idol, The Defiant Ones, Sharp Objects, His Dark Materials, Insecure, and Elvis Presley: The Searcher. Alana worked as a Production Coordinator on Rory Kennedy’s Sundance film, Downfall (Netflix). Alana also works as a freelance marketing and social media manager and works with the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
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 crowdfunded 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.
Kimberly Stuckwisch is an award-winning film, commercial, theater, and music video writer/director whose work blends magical realism with everyday life. She built a career as a vocal supporter of bold creative ideas, with her writing often bringing awareness to timely social issues and breaking conventional expectations. Her works have showcased at Cannes, Sundance, TIFF, Camerimage, SXSW, Ciclope, The Clios, Kinsale, The VMAs, The UKMVs, The Berlin Commercial Awards, The Hammer Museum, The Public Theatre, ABC, MTV, and in theaters across the world.
Kate Logan is an award-winning documentary producer and director with a penchant for telling stories that explore the convergence of LGBTQ and religious communities. Her directorial debut "Kidnapped for Christ," brought to light widespread abuse occurring in “troubled teen” programs operating in the U.S. and abroad. The release of her film prompted the introduction of federal legislation aimed at protecting youth who are sent to residential treatment programs and the passage of the “Protecting Youth from Institutional Abuse Act” in California. She went on to produce the feature documentary "An Act of Love," which told the story of a small-town minister and father of three gay children, whose removal from the United Methodist Church aggravated a divide that threatened to split the entire denomination. Recently, Kate has worked with several accomplished documentary filmmakers on projects surrounding the #metoo movement, including Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s "On the Record," the Vice limited series "Big Rad Wolf."
Alexandra Marske is an award-winning documentary producer with a passion for projects centered on social justice and activism. Her most recent feature documentary, War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, won the 2024 Webby Award for Best Documentary, the 2025 Digiday Award for Best Original Programming, and was recognized for its bold and intimate storytelling that explored the intersection of culture, conflict, and creation in war-torn Ukraine. Prior to going freelance, she spent several years working alongside Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award–winning filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering on projects including Not So Pretty (HBO Max), On the Record (Sundance 2020, HBO Max), and The Bleeding Edge (Tribeca 2018, Netflix).
Alexandra Nikolchev is an Emmy- and Peabody-winning documentary filmmaker whose work explores identity, power, and social change through intimate, character-driven storytelling. Her films center outsiders navigating public-facing roles, hidden labor, and flawed systems at moments of personal and cultural reckoning.
She began her career as a journalist with PBS national news and went on to direct episodes of HBO’s vérité-style documentary series “Sex Diaries.” She has produced feature documentaries and broadcast specials on immigration, healthcare, and education for PBS, NBC, and Peacock. “Breaking Form,” her first feature as director, is a portrait of maverick choreographer Jane Comfort; the film debuted at Dance On Camera Film Festival at Film at Lincoln Center and won Best Documentary at the Sky Arts Film Festival. She produced Mikaela Shwer's first feature documentary, " No Le Digas a Nadie," which won a Peabody in 2016. Alexandra grew up in California’s Bay Area and currently lives in New York City. In parallel to her independent filmmaking, Alexandra is the founder of Hot in Here Productions, where she collaborates with mission-driven organizations on strategic and impact-oriented storytelling.
Veronica Pinkham is a Los Angeles-based editor who has collaborated with acclaimed directors such as Cameron Crowe, Amy Berg, and Rory Kennedy. Her work on documentary films and series has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, and AFI Fest, as well as streamed on HBO, Apple TV+, and Hulu. Selected editing credits include The Kids Are Not Alright, The Synanon Fix, Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me, and David Crosby: Remember My Name. Veronica also co-edited the feature doc Art For Everybody, which premiered at SXSW 2023, and HBO's 2 part doc series Phoenix Rising, which premiered at Sundance 2022.
Will Allegra-Garofalo is a Los Angeles-based editor who is drawn to character-driven, emotionally complex stories. Over the past decade, his work has been featured across outlets such as HBO, Showtime, VICE, and more. Some of his latest editing credits include The Synanon Fix (Sundance ‘24 World Premiere) and A Photographic Memory (True/False ‘24 World Premiere). As an independent filmmaker inside and outside of the edit room, his work is informed by observational style and experimental form.
Autumn Eakin turned her years of working under Maryse Alberti (The Wrestler, Velvet Goldmine, Creed) and Vanja Cernjul (30 Rock, Orange Is the New Black, The Deuce) into an artful resourcefulness she uses in her narrative and documentary filmmaking. Her work includes projects such as Insidious: The Red Door, The Invitation, and the Peabody Award–winning documentaries Mavis! and No Le Digas A Nadie (Don’t Tell Anyone). Born in New Mexico and raised in the hills of Missouri, she loves stories about the thin line of melancholy one finds between hope and despair.
Benjamin Messelbeck is a film composer whose work spans documentary and narrative features streaming on Apple TV+, Hulu, and PBS. He composed the score for Don't Tell Anyone (No Le Digas a Nadie), a documentary that received a Peabody Award, and for Snapshots of Confinement, winner of a Los Angeles Emmy Award. His recent work includes two films directed by Robert Schwartzman: Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary — executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's Playtone — which premiered at SXSW, and the narrative feature The Good Half, starring Nick Jonas, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and streams on Hulu.