Our Approach
Principal Intimacy Professionals can assist productions of all types, sizes, and budgets with intimacy direction, intimacy coordination, and consultations.
Easily integrated into your existing production, intimacy coordinators and directors can bring best practices, consent-informed protocols, and time-saving solutions to projects featuring intimacy and/or scenes of heightened intensity. We work as a team to ensure though schedules may change you will always have the support you need.
Our team members have individual skill sets and expertise in various areas, including but not limited to:
over 25+ years of collective experience + training in intimacy from leading mentors and organisations from around the world
facilitation of training, both nationally + internationally
sexual health + education
diversity + sensitivity training
intersectional education + perspectives on sex and gender
fight/violence design + direction
youth advocacy
occupational health + safety training
mental health + physical first aid training
health + safety best practices
wellness facilitation
script and risk assessment breakdowns
additional applied experience and training in stage combat, wardrobe, direction, casting, dance, singing, and acting coaching techniques
With this multidisciplinary approach, our team offers additional services such as script expertise and breakdowns for production prep, COVID-19 risk assessments and risk reduction breakdowns, and wellness facilitation.
Our team was instrumental in the development of provincial and national standards, protocols and best bractices with organisations including CAEA, UBCP, and ACTRA and have offered webinars through Actsafe Association. Some of our members are also a part of the National Society of Intimacy Professionals, Canada’s non-profit serving intimacy professionals.
Our Team
Amanda Liz Cutting (she | her)
Certified Intimacy Coordinator, Certified Intimacy Director, BECTU Health & Safety
Vancouver, Calgary
An award-nominated actor and director, Amanda Liz Cutting has been active in both professional and semi-professional theatre, film, and television for over twenty years. Amanda has worked as an actors’ advocate and Intimacy Choreographer/Coordinator for the last eight years. She is a certified Intimacy Coordinator and Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators (IDC) and Intimacy Directors International (IDI). She is on the start-up committee for the National Society of Intimacy Professionals (NSIP) and leads Principal Intimacy Professionals (PIP), a team who serves Vancouver’s Hollywood North and other Canadian film/television/theatre centres.
Amanda works internationally and assists in creating safe workplaces for artists on both stage and film sets. She is one of the few Intimacy Directors that also specializes in youth intimacy and safety. In 2019, she was the first Intimacy Coordinator to be hired by Bollywood for the web series Mastram (MX Player), which has become the highest viewed series in the world with 616 million views.
Amanda is in the process of creating a physical movement lexicon for intimacy, which hopefully will be published at the end of 2021. She has worked for theatres such as Neptune Theatre and Arts Club, and shows such as the Game of Thrones Prequel (HBO), The Magicians (NBC/Universal), The Bold Type (Freeform), The Good Doctor (ABC), Radio Nowhere (CBS), Upload (Amazon), and Nancy Drew (CW).
Megan Gilron (she | they)
Certified Intimacy Coordinator, Comprehensive Sexual Health & Sexuality Educator
Vancouver
Megan is a comprehensive sexual health and sexuality educator, an actors’ advocate and an Intimacy Coordinator for film and television.
She has an extensive background in theatre costume design, acting, and directing; film and TV costuming (IATSE 891 member); and youth facilitation (with Safeteen International). They have been a sex and relationship educator for 10+ years, with training under the infamous Betty Dodson and from several programs through Options for Sexual Health.
Her work is diversely informed by training and experience in mental health first aid, conflict resolution, consent and boundaries negotiations, alternative sexual practices (including kink and BDSM) and facilitation of somatic bodywork. Their intimacy coordination training is informed by the 5 pillars and Intimacy Choreography modalities popularized by Intimacy Director’s International and Theatrical Intimacy Education.
She is a Co-Chair of The National Society of Intimacy Professionals and they are a team member of Principal Intimacy Professionals, currently working in film, television and theatre productions in Western Canada (IMDb). She facilitates classes on “representations of sex and sexuality for performance”. Megan lives, loves, creates and resists within the ancestral, traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations (Vancouver, Canada).
Sam Jeffery (she | her)
Certified Intimacy Coordinator, Certified Intimacy Director, Fight Director
Vancouver, Edmonton
Sam Jeffery (she/her) is a certified intimacy director & coordinator, educator, actor, and award-nominated fight director who was born and raised in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 territory. Her extensive training in mental and sexual health includes volunteering on the crisis line for the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton, co-creation of productions about addiction and trauma, and mental health first aid. She has also curated and hosted sex-positive performance events such as the Smut Cabaret, and co-created award-winning films that have toured North America as part of the Hump Festival. Sam was the recipient of the 2019 Nordic & Cloutier Family Innovation Award in support of her advancement in the field of Intimacy Direction. She is grateful to be able to grow and apply her practice across Turtle Island alongside so many other wonderful people.
Sam has worked with youth and adults in universities, high schools, summer camps, and wherever else her travels take her. Her workshops often combine consent, boundaries, creativity, and adaptability. She takes special interest in bringing joy and a trauma-informed approach that meets folks wherever they are, celebrating how honouring our needs leads to exciting & creative artistic choices.
Credits include: Batwoman (Warner Bros. Television/The CW); Bunny (The Search Party); Michael Mysterious (Pyretic Productions); Titus Andronicus (University of Lethbridge); Boticelli in the Fire (ABBEDAM, University of Alberta); The Magicians (NBC/Universal); To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before 3 (Netflix); Darker Than Night 2 (ODP Studio); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theatre Prospero); Macbeth, Henry V (Malachite Theatre).
Phay Moores (she | they)
Intimacy Coordinator, Intimacy Director, Script Expert
Vancouver
Phay (she/they) is an intimacy director/coordinator, theatre director, writer, internationally trained actor combatant, and professional actor who currently lives on the stolen traditional territory of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlim) Nation.
After starting her training in 2016 with Intimacy Directors International, Phay has trained with organisations and mentors across Canada and North America, and helped in the creation of the National Society of Intimacy Professionals.
Phay has supported productions all over the Lower Mainland as an intimacy professional in film, television, and theatre. Past credits include Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., Machinal, Oil, and Coriolanus (UBC), Cuello (Crazy8s), Superman & Lois s2 (Warner Bros), Bunny (Search Party Productions), and the 2021 Leo Award Winner FREYA.
“[Phay] created a beautifully honest and safe space, and her choreography was as stunning as it was safe and simple to do. She helped us approach this sensitive and complicated piece of theatre with compassion and professionalism. The show could not have happened without her.” ~ Andie Lloyd
heyphay.ca | Insta/TT @happyphayce
Anastasia St. Amand (she | her)
Intimacy Coordinator, Intimacy Director, Fight Director
Vancouver, Calgary
Anastasia is an intimacy director, intimacy coordinator, drama teacher, an award nominated actor, and an award-winning fight director. She works teaching and directing middle and high school students at schools throughout Alberta, including stints at the Calgary Arts Academy. She treasures teaching movement for young actors by relating it to sport, dance and nature while always maintaining a sense of joy, play and exploration.
Anastasia has had the good fortune to work on international theatrical productions and holds the distinction of being the first credited intimacy director at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Central to her practice has always been the physical and mental safety of all production members. To that end, Anastasia holds accreditation in Bystander Intervention, Mental Health First Aid ,and First Responder/Psychological First Aid as well as Standard First Aid and CPR training.
In all, Anastasia has been active in professional, semi-professional and amateur theatre in Calgary for over 15 years. During the course of her career, she has had the great fortune to hone her skills in a welcoming and energetic community. Anastasia has recently had the opportunity to take the skills learned during her time in the Calgary Arts community to new challenges with Principal Intimacy in British Columbia on a variety of film and television projects.
Megan Wong (she | they)
Intimacy Coordinator, Intimacy Director
Vancouver, Victoria
Megan Wong (she/they) is a queer, neurodivergent, Chinese-Canadian Intimacy Professional working primarily in the Pacific Northwest residing on the stolen lands of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, and the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations (Victoria, BC).
She has trained in intimacy internationally with organizations including Intimacy for Stage and Screen (UK), Theatrical Intimacy Education (USA), and Principal Intimacy Professionals (Canada) and is a committee member of the National Society of Intimacy Professionals.
Megan has consulted internationally as an IP and aims to support young and neurodiverse performers in their needs on stage and screen. She believes in collaborative, process-based art and finds beauty and excitement in the unique circumstance of all her performers.
Megan’s primary background includes classical ballet, movement theatre, and psychology (B.A.). She is also a practicing special educator and sexual assault support worker and incorporates skills from those disciplines into her practice from a trauma-informed lens. To them, trauma-informed work honors privacy, compassion, and autonomy to create a safe space for those she works with.
Meagan Schroder (she | her)
Actor, Educator, Intimacy Coordinator
Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa
Meagan’s training comes from an evolution of her experience as an actor. Her BFA in theatre performance from Concordia University has given Meagan embodied knowledge in the dramaturgy of movement and expression of the human body. Having worked as an actor in film, TV, voice and theatre for 10+ years she understands the range of personal creative processes actors use to approach their craft and how to work within those processes and work mindfully with impulses.
Her personal and professional curiosities about the intersection of sexuality and mental health brought her to the Institute of Somatic Sexology where she completed her Embodied Counseling Certificate. From here she deepend her training with Mental Health First Aid for Adult and Youth with the Mental Health Commission of Canada. She is a confident and grounded presence in the face of conflict management and overstimulating environments.
Meagan is always eager to learn therefore she intentionally sought out her training as an Intimacy Coordinator + Intimacy Director from as many institutions and people as possible to diversify her knowledge and approach. She has learned from her incredible mentors and teachers here at PIP and beyond with Theatrical Intimacy Education, Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, Intimacy Directors of Colour and The National Society of Intimacy Professionals.
Ashley Donahue (she | her)
Intimacy Coordinator, Intimacy Director, Indigenous Wellness Coordinator
Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles
Ashley's work as an Intimacy Coordinator and Intimacy Director with Principal Intimacy Professionals has become the next evolution of her dynamic career. She has been recognized as Canada’s first Indigenous Wellness Coordinator. Ashley believes that offering culturally based care allows for storytellers and performers to explore challenging cultural content in a mindful and judicious way.
Ashley has a unique background that combines social justice advocacy with the performing arts. She is a dancer, choreographer, actor, and producer as well as a graduate from the University of British Columbia. Ashley has over a decade of experience in social work and victim services, with a focus on Indigenous communities.
While at UBC, Ashley honed her choreography skills by working on musicals such as The Boyfriend, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Crazy For You, Sweet Charity, and Into The Woods. After graduation, she transitioned into solo performance art and created the award-winning burlesque persona Ruthe Ordare. As "Ruthe," Ashley headlined festivals across North America and co-founded Virago Nation, an all-Indigenous burlesque collective. From 2016 to 2022, she served as the Artistic Director for the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, advocating for diversity and representation on the burlesque stage.
Proudly a member of the Mohawk Nation of Six Nations, ON, Ashley currently resides on the traditional lands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations (also known as Vancouver).
Ashley is eligible to work in Canada and the US and is a member of UBCP-ACTRA.