Samantha Thornhill

Freelance Producer // NYC & LA Based

Career Highlights

  • Cast over 300 episodes for Food Network's Chopped, including specialty tournaments: Gold Metal Games and Grill Masters.

  • Field produced food competition shows: Beat Bobby Flay, Dishmantled, Halloween Cake-Off, and more.

  • Produced over 3,000 instructional video assets in 10 languages for Google Pixel's pre-loaded app, Tips.

Areas of Expertise

  • VO and Animation Production 

  • Localization Production

  • VO Production

  • Talent Booking & Management

  • Client & Project Management

  • MAC/PC savvy

  • Adobe InDesign and G-Suite

  • Slack communication

  • Conducting on-camera interviews

  • Ukulele Playing [Soprano]

  • Hand Lettering

Education & Organizations

  • Full Sail University - Bachelor of Science in Film 2012

    • Course Director's Award for Art History 

  • 2 Day Stage - Pig Beach NYC 

    • Staged with Pitmaster Shane McBride on the process of grilling competition style BBQ ribs 

Employment History

FREELANCE PRODUCER
Various // September 2022 - Present

  • LITTLE-GIANT MOTION: September 2023-Present

    • Post Producer on animated and VFX commercials, campaigns, 3D billboards

      • Managing budgets and timelines throughout a project’s life cycle

      • Booking and managing freelance artists

      • Managing comms between agency and internal teams

      • Tracking progress and updating agency with project milestones

  • ALKEMY-X: January 2023-September 2023

    • Post Producer on animated explainer videos, marketing spots, etc.

      • Managed comms between agency and internal teams

      • Built documents for production workflows

      • QC’ed assets before sharing with the client

  • GOOGLE: September 2022-January 2023

    • Casting Producer for marketing research video projects + live panels

      • Researched potential talent

      • Handled all comms with talent from initial contact through bookings

      • Pitched candidates to the client

    • Field Producer on docu-style videos

      • Booked crew

      • Scheduled shoots + managing production timelines

      • Directed talent + camera

      • Conducted interviews

      • Created pre-production documentation

      • Collaborated with editorial producer + international crews

      • Production management on set

  • SIX WEST MEDIA: December 2022

    • Field Producer on new food hosted show for A&E Networks

      • Wrote one sheets for talent

      • Tracked story on set

      • Ensured all story beats have been logged and filmed

      • Took hotsheet notes for post’s use

      • Coordinated material releases with on-camera talent

PRODUCER
Masonry // September 2021 - September 2022

  • Estimated, bid, tracked and managed organization of all aspects of post-production, based on project scope

  • Developed workflows and systems for post-production

  • Managed bookings and assignment of staff animators, illustrators and editors 

  • Client-facing; strong writing skills and ability to communicate deadlines and project milestones to clients

  • Oversaw budgets and timelines throughout project's lifecycles 

VIDEO PRODUCER 
The Visual Lab; Google // September 2019 - 2021

  • Video Producer at The Visual Lab, a full service in-house video team that creates video assets for teams across Google; specializing in UX video creation 

  • Served as the liaison between clients and video vendors for over +200 projects, ranging from internal corporate videos to public facing content across various social channels 

  • Managed Pixel "Tips" videos; producing up to 500 deliverables in 10 languages per phone launch

    • Pixel 4, 4a, 5, and 6

  • Select Clients include: Pixel Tips, Google Help, YouTube, Waze, Street View, Google Maps

FIELD PRODUCER / CASTING PRODUCER / TALENT PRODUCER
Various Food Competition Shows // March 2017 - September 2019

Field Producer Responsibilities:

  • Vetted contestants prior to shoot date; Wrote one sheets for each contestant 

  • Produced talent on the floor during cooking rounds; Prompting on the fly interviews, as needed 

  • Conducted exit interviews for 2-4 contestants per shoot day 

  • Credits include: Beat Bobby Flay, Dishmantled, Dinner Takes All, Santa's Baking Blizzard, Bite Club, Halloween Cake-Off, Food Hall Brawl

Casting Producer Responsibilities:

  • Vetted potential contestants

  • Conducted 20-25 on-camera interviews per week

  • Wrote 5-10 casting pitches per week

  • Oversaw small team for special tournaments on Chopped: Gold Medal Games and BBQ Grillmasters

  • Trained and onboarded new team members

  • Credits include: Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay, Bakers vs. Fakers, Halloween Cake-Off