Creating impactful stories & experiences.
Michaela's creative strength lies in the harmony between the story and the technology.

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Morning Light
Morning Light is a reimagining of this ancient practice where visitors can have their tea leaves interpreted and read aloud by artificial intelligence. The tea house provides inspiration for how new rituals can be designed.
Role: Role: Artist, Designer, Creative Director
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Recording the Ride
An exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image that explores the late 1980s and 1990s, and how skateboard teams harnessed inexpensive, widely accessible video equipment to record and share limit-pushing tricks performed on stairs, benches, and other skate-able elements of public architecture.
Role: Guest Co-Curator & Co-Designer
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Thank you, mom
Through significant journal entries spanning her life, a woman chronicles her journey of growing up amidst the aftermath of her father's death and her mother's new beginnings.
Tribeca & SORA commissioned five short films, powered by SORA, to premiere at the Tribeca Festival-- the first time work made by filmmakers with SORA’s headline-grabbing text-to-video tool is showcased publicly.
Role: Director & Co-Writer
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The Christmas Recipe
The Christmas Recipe is a heartfelt animated short film inspired by my own holiday childhood memories. The film opens on the night before Christmas, and a young girl named Maya carefully tip-toes around her home. With a plan to surprise her parents with the perfect Christmas breakfast, she quietly enlists the help of her younger brother and sister, Graham and Lilly.
Role: Director & Writer
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Reimagined: Volume II: Mahal
In partnership with Meta, director Michaela Ternasky-Holland brings to life Reimagined Volume II: Mahal, a virtual reality (VR) animation series marking the next step in vivid immersive storytelling.
Inspired by Philippine mythology, the story focuses on Apolaki, Mayari, Tala, and Hanan, the four immortal children of the recently passed creator god, Bathala. As each of these deities wrestles with the grief of losing Bathala, their all-powerful actions create ripples throughout the universe. Dedicated to Michaela’s late father, MAHAL is a story of how love comes at a cost.
Role: Director & Co-Writer
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Lutaw
Step into Geramy’s world, a scrappy, budding inventor, who is trying to find a better way to commute to school.
Based in the Philippines, this award-winning story highlights the students that swim between the small islands in order to travel to the nearest elementary or high schools in their remote areas.
This 3D animated virtual reality project is made possible by the partnership between Oculus VR for Good program and the Filipino non-profit named Yellow Boat of Hope. Lutaw is free and available for all Meta Quest headsets.
Role: Co-Creator
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Nakenaghch’ sutdu’a
Nakenaghch’ sutdu’a “Our traditional legacy, stories of our history” is an exhibition curated by the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The exhibit features a virual reality experience that highlights the subsistence practices of the Dena’ina people of Dgheyey kaq’, or what is now known as Anchorage.
The project includes 360 footage, virtual reality animation, and 3D models sourced and created ethically in collaboration with the Alaska Native Heritage Center’s researchers and curators.
Role: Director
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Kapwa
Kapwa is a series of video installations that trace an outline around what is missing of the history of our people. It foregrounds a sense of loss–a disconnect from our ancestry–and creates a space to explore the grief that follows.
The installation uses generative AI to imagine elements of culture and history that are missing. Kapwa shows us images that feel familiar, but are ultimately false: prosthetic versions of irretrievable lost artifacts. Kapwa unites found media made by contemporary Filipinos, that we have discovered are all asking in unison: “Who are we?”
Role: Co-Creator
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Face to Face
An award-winning innovative experience that brought you into the life of a woman who wears a facial prosthetic after a near-fatal shooting accident.
This thirty-seven-foot-long and thirteen-foot-wide installation featured a unique virtual reality headset and virtual reality film that allowed the audience an intimate look at the effects of gun injury and human resilience.
FACE TO FACE was described by The Guardian as gut-wrenching, visceral, and heart-breaking.
Role: Co-Creator
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Sports Illustrated’s Capturing Everest
Follow three climbers on their journey to the top in this groundbreaking immersive series. Of the hundreds of people who attempt to scale Everest each year, an even smaller number make it to the top. This story is one of hope, teamwork, and perseverance.
This award-winning project is the first virtual reality climb from the bottom to the top of Everest and one of the first augmented reality covers and articles featured in Sports Illustrated magazine.
The project was awarded an Emmy in Digital Innovation and won two Webby categories.
Role: Story Creator & Editor
Awards
Emmy Outstanding Digital Innovation
Peabody Nominee for Immersive & Interactive
Producers Guild of America Award for Innovation
Collision Awards for Best Directing in XR
Technical Achievement & Grand Prize in the Professional Division
Silver Honor in XR
Social Impact Media Awards Best VR Experience and Immersive Impact
VR Awards Finalist for VR Film of the Year
Webby Award Nominee for Best VR Headset Experience
Webby Award Nominee for Public Sevice & Activism
XR Must Award Best Interactive/6DoF
XR Must Award Best Storytelling & Screenplay
VR Awards Finalist for VR Experience of the Year
SXSW Grand Jury Winner of XR Experience
VR Awards Finalist for Social Impact Experience of the Year
Webby Awards Honoree for Best VR Video
Asian American International Film Festival Best Digital/New Media
VR Awards Finalist for VR Film of the Year
Cannes XR Positron Visionary Award Nominee
Sheffield Doc/Fest Alternate Realities Commission
Sheffield Doc/Fest VR Award Winner
Youtube’s Best of VR Playlist
Webby Awards People’s Voice Award & Branded VR Film
Other Projects
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TIME’s VR Livestream
This 360-degree live stream of the Great American Solar Eclipse from Casper, Wyoming garnered over 5 million views on Facebook and Youtube. It also broke the record for most traffic on TIME’s website in a twenty-four hour period.
Role: Livestream Director and Associate Producer
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TIME’s Remembering Pearl Harbor
In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, TIME and LIFE VR take you back to that moment in history in this original historical virtual-reality project.
The experience has been created to be appropriate for audiences of all ages. It was produced by Deluxe VR in partnership with HTC and AMD.
Role: Associate Producer
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Murder on the Orient Express Behind the Scenes VR
See how director Kenneth Branagh recreated the iconic 1920s luxury train, built a colossal train station and brought Agatha Christie’s world-famous murder mystery to life.
Stars Daisy Ridley and Josh Gad take you behind the scenes in this People exclusive VR experience.
Role: Director and Editor
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Sunset Magazine’s Grand Canyon VR
Bright Angel Trail on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park is a challenging 9.5 mile trek to the bottom of the canyon and back.
This project was featured on Youtube’s Best of VR Playlist
Role: Director & Editor for Sunset Magazine
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LIFE VR
An extension of the iconic LIFE brand, LIFE VR is a virtual reality and augmented reality platform offering immersive experiences from some of today’s most beloved brands, including TIME, People, Sports Illustrated, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, Southern Living, and InStyle.
This mobile app is one of many platforms from which you can explore LIFE VR’s growing slate of world-class stories and original programming. Others include Steam for the HTC Vive; Samsung Gear VR; and Oculus Rift.
Role: Associate Producer