Hi, I'm ELA.

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Ela began studying film and television production at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. While there, she honed her skills in all aspects of production, from screenwriting to producing to editing.

Ela became interested in documentary filmmaking during the pandemic, in which she completed her junior thesis project You Really Don't Want to Do This as a remote documentary, investigating the extreme haunted house McKamey Manor. In 2021, she became a research assistant at Honora Productions and worked on documentary podcast The Comeback, which was nominated for a Webby in best documentary podcast. Her most recent documentary Waves Apart was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards and will premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2023.

Ela is highly proficient in all aspects of video editing, from colorgrading to sound design. She currently works creating content for small companies such as Bedroom 6, the Museum LA, and travel start-up Legends. She hopes to continue working in content to help businesses and organizations she loves grow.

As a writer, Ela began her creative career in 2018 with an independent study under New York Times Bestselling Authors Hanif Abdurraqib (They Can’t Kill us Until They Kill Us), Alexandra Fuller (Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight) and Paula McLain (The Paris Wife). She was a finalist for the UNC Thomas Wolfe Creative Writing Scholarship, won a Scholastic Gold Key for her writing, and wrote for Haute Magazine at USC. Her screenplay Cat Lady was selected as one of the 2022 senior thesis films and produced by a twenty-student crew.

Ela most recently studied nonfiction and fiction at Columbia University’s creative writing program under soon-to-be-published young authors Jared Jackson and Sophie Dess. She currently works as a copywriter for various brands creating written content for books, newsletters, and social media.

After backpacking Central America for three months and Vietnam for one during her college career, Ela became infatuated with travel and is currently spending her 23rd year traveling and supporting herself as a freelance creative. She hopes to come back to New York with a portfolio of content for brands and nonprofits around the world along with a short-form international documentary series.