As the Creative Director of Experiential at Refinery29 (Vice Media), Stephanie evolved R29’s flagship event, 29Rooms, an immersive funhouse of cause and creativity with novel audience experience techniques and technological innovations. She led the R29 experiential creative department to win millions of dollars in co-branded activations with world-class clients such as Amazon, Reebok, Netflix, CB2 and Intuit to bring their brands and products to life in unique and meaningful experiences that reached hundreds of millions of people.

A classically trained theatrical director, her documentary feature “The Standbys” is a New York Times Critic’s Pick and continues to inspire audiences around the world. And she produced the award-winning feature thriller “Banshee Chapter” with Zachary Quinto (“Star Trek”), which pushed the boundaries of stereoscopic 3D filmmaking.

As a Disney Imagineer, she was part of the production team that brought to life the theatrical shows in Hong Kong Disneyland such as “Lion King”, and “The Golden Mickeys” and has continued R&D with the Imagineers on innovative theatrical storytelling techniques using interactive technology.

Stephanie’s background in Human-Computer Interaction plays a significant role in her approach to interactive, immersive, and experiential projects. In 2021, she evolved the show-stopping number “Friend Like Me” in Disney Theatrical Group’s musical “Aladdin” to an Augmented Reality experience. Previously she had consulted with Google Creative Lab on the Virtual Reality project “Defenders”, highlighting the impact of juvenile detention. She was invited to film President Barack Obama’s historic speech in Nairobi while traveling to Nigeria, Rwanda, and Kenya to direct the 360 film “Kanju”, exploring African ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit, which premiered at Tribeca Immersive.

With research and informed decision making at the core of her practice, she frequently leads research and collaborates with world-renowned academic institutions exploring the intersection of story and technology including Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center and NYU’s Future Realities Lab, and she co-led Yale’s Blended Reality Lab. Her papers and contributions have been included in prestigious research organizations such as SIGGRAPH and IEEE.

Over 25 years of innovative creative development across academia, theme parks, film, theater, virtual reality and augmented reality has given Stephanie a unique, informed perspective on how stories, creators, and our audiences are evolving. These insights became a best-selling, critically acclaimed book, “The End of Storytelling.”