Michaela A. Ternasky-Holland
Emmy Award-Winning & Peabody-Nominated Director | Speaker & Consultant
Michaela A. Ternasky-Holland is a Peabody-nominated and Emmy award-winning director who specializes in creating impactful stories using immersive and interactive technology. She is one of the first directors to create and premiere a short film utilizing Open AI’s SORA platform, which screened at Tribeca Festival. Her prolific work in virtual reality animation has been recognized as Best Directing in XR by The Collision Awards, VR Film of Year Finalist by the International VR Awards, and Grand Prize Winner at The Philippine Animation Festival. As a nominee for the Producers Guild of America’s Innovation Award, she is also a consultant, speaker, and thought leader, who has been recognized as one of the 100 Original Voices of XR and listed as one of Blooloop’s 50 Immersive Influencers.
Michaela’s past work has been curated by top institutions and festivals, such as the New York Public Library, Museum of the Moving Image, Venice International Film Festival, SXSW, and Tribeca Festival. Her projects have also been featured in renowned press outlets, such as TIME, Forbes, The Guardian, Variety, and Hollywood Reporter. She is lauded as an eloquent and moving speaker and has spoken at numerous international conferences, public institutions, and podcasts.
Michaela was integral in publishing one of the first LGBTQIA+ virtual reality experiences to the Meta Quest store and co-authored a white paper highlighting virtual reality as a tool for learning, impact, and engagement. Her impact-driven focus has led her to work with companies and institutions such as The Alaska Native Heritage Center, Games for Change, The Human Rights Campaign, The Nobel Peace Center, and The United Nations.
Michaela's Guiding Principles
To create
physical and digital experiences that have the power to transform
To connect
ideas to possibilities, intent to execution, and projects to key collaborators or funders.
To lead
whether internal teams or external stakeholders, everyone's time, energy, and opinions are treated with care and centered on trust.
To impact
the XR industry to value accessibility, inclusion, social impact, and safety.
Michaela's Foundation
Michaela coined the term -- compassionate storytelling.
Compassionate storytelling is the re-discovery of ethical storytelling through non-traditional mediums and honors the collaborators and the audience.
The first pillar of compassionate storytelling is to deeply collaborate with individuals that have lived or created their own powerful stories.
The second pillar of compassionate storytelling is to honor the essence of these stories.
The third pillar of compassionate storytelling is to take the audience members experiencing the story into deep consideration during the creative process.