Meet Stephanie Peraza | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Peraza and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
It’s a chaotic field so you really have to love the process to pursue it. More than anything, my end goal is to deeply affect audiences and earn respect amongst my peers. I’d like to look back and say: “I gave it my all, I took care of the people I love. There was a purpose to all of this”. Existential questions will always emerge, artists are drawn to that–especially because personal fulfillment is subjective. Heaven on earth to me is storytelling, in any medium. Films always just clicked for me and now, I find that it is the most striking way to explore my innermost thoughts. Sometimes I frighten myself, reflecting on all the odd stories I’ve concocted. I’d like to be a well versed traveller of my arcane mind, all the crevices of it. Better yet, I’d like to take others on these reeling rollercoasters with me, that’s the truest goal I can think of.

There’s a reason I love wrestling…I love theater! I was in the Drama Club in high school. Stage crew extraordinaire. I wrote sketches and handled production cues. One time on a dare, and at the end of the musical play “Anything Goes”, I abruptly burst through the stage curtains and slid on my knees from the corner screaming “ANYTHING GOES!” The Drama Club president was furious, she wasn’t expecting that I would do that, especially because I was a little freshman that dutifully followed their instructions. I loved the element of surprise… and I suffered severe friction burns on my knees because of it. I’d like to think that’s how I will continue to conduct my life: embrace the fear and celebrate the exhilaration of feeling alive. Fourteen year old me was on to something. Fourteen year old me wanted to make movies, I just didn’t know how. Now, I do. I never want to give that up.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m working on some really exciting projects right now. I’m in my final semester at USC School of Cinematic Arts–luckily, summer school classes paid off and I am graduating a semester early. As it turns out, this is my busiest semester yet, with back-to-back projects sprouting as the months progress. The most demanding (and rewarding) of my classes has been CTPR 544: Virtual Production in LED Volumes. This course gives us access to Sony’s Crystal LED B Series wall at the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts, and allows us to use virtual backgrounds in our productions. I pitched a horror short film about a woman that encounters a mysterious figure during her closing shift at a movie theater. I titled the piece “Closing” (2025), and ended up being one of six projects selected for the semester.

Led by Professors Habib Zargarpour and Scott Kroopf, both who have extensive experience using visual effects in films like “Jumanji” (1995), we shot “Closing” first. Our team miraculously pulled everything together in the matter of a couple weeks, including the construction of a believable concession stand foreground set. Written and directed by me, the short stars Brissa Ramirez and Andrew Thomas-Nathan in a supporting role. We’re currently in post production as we speak, and I’m really looking forward to hopping into sound with my sound designer, Sean Foster. After directing, I went on to produce a romantic music video and an ancient Chinese period piece, respectively. So my hands have been really full for this former half of the semester!

Beyond the LED wall class, I am attached to two USC thesis projects as producer: Uhoman Moltok’s “Wasabi” and Colin Galeste’s “Manongs”, both slated to shoot in the coming months. I am currently gearing up for Anna O’Donnell’s thesis film, “Rebound”, as 1st AD. I also had the really interesting opportunity to 1st AD for a Ganek Immersive Studio project titled “Performance Improvement Plan”, written and directed by Jinrun Han (who also served in the art department on “Closing”). This was my first experience working with Virtual Reality (VR), so I dipped my toes in the immersive cinema/VR world as well.

On top of a jam-packed schedule, the documentary I produced alongside Grace Galarraga, “La Línea”, has recently been nominated for Best Documentary at the First Look 2025 Industry Awards that will take place in April. Our team is also partnering with Midcity Mercado in Los Angeles to host a screening of the documentary sometime in June. Our director, Daniel Roman, has simultaneously begun to lead our team in outreach initiatives that will benefit our documentary’s participants, all who have been deeply affected by the current presidential administration’s new policies.

All these ventures have kept my calendar quite full in the past few months. There’s even more projects I am going to participate in this semester. Lucky for me, the list is quite substantial–plenty of time to expand and learn more. My graduation is set for May 16, after which I will enter a highly competitive workforce. To put it lightly, I’m terrified to freelance…but I’m ready to take a chance on my talents and push myself as a skilled 1st AD, producer, writer, and director. It’s all really exhilarating–I can’t believe how far I’ve come in the past couple years.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ah, depends where in Los Angeles you want to go! I live in the San Fernando Valley so I’m definitely more prone to suggest something like the Magnolia Strip in Burbank. Porto’s is always a go-to, and now there’s even a location in Northridge. We have Cane’s locations in both Northridge and Burbank now, that was a HUGE deal when they opened. I knew people that used to drive to Downey for Cane’s, crazily enough.

I will say, my best friend, Nina, and I recently tried this Turkey BLT at a place called Dialog Café in West Hollywood, it was the most stunning sandwich I had in a while. So simple yet so delectable. In downtown Los Angeles, off the corner of Venice & Bonnie Brae, we have Portobanco’s, which is by far the best Nicaragüense restaurant I have ever been to.

As a cinephile, I would definitely recommend where Sabrina, my fellow best friend, works: the Academy Museum. The first time we went there is a precious memory of mine. It’s a reaffirming and beautiful archive for film lovers.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
This one’s for my mama. She and I had a tumultuous relationship over the years and I often regret putting her through the bullshit I put her through. I was a wild kid once I was let loose. I felt resentment for her leaving me behind in California for a year to be with my dad in Nebraska. And so I went off and screamed into a void for over ten years. When she came back, I was angry and it was only after deep reflection and contemplation that I came to find that she and I were more alike than I wanted to admit. Loyal to a fault. Resilient beyond words. Crazy in love to the point where we lost ourselves. Here on earth to trade our pain for a sincere appreciation of life–something that one could never buy.

I could never really repay her for all the sacrifices she made. I long to keep her close and tend to anything she needs. I just hope she knows that I bear her resemblance with pride. As my own woman now, her blood running through my veins is the greatest gift and blessing I could have ever received. Being her daughter is a privilege and responsibility that I never want to take for granted. To me, she is Nicaragua, my sunlight, and my genesis of love in its purest form.

Website: https://linktr.ee/mamakillabee

Instagram: mamakillabee

Other: https://seedandspark.com/fund/wasabi#story

Image Credits
Brandon Walsh, Terrell King, Sifan “Phoebe” Liu