Laura Rikard (Intimacy Coordinator) (she/her) is a Founder of Theatrical Intimacy Education, an Intimacy Coordinator, an Intimacy Choreographer/Director, Professor, Teacher, Director, Writer, and Consent Specialist. She is an Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of South Carolina Upstate. She is a leading voice in the development of the intimacy Discipline. Intimacy Coordination Credits include: Interview with A Vampire (AMC), Anne Rice Mayfair Witches (AMC), Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat (Searchlight Pictures), Appendage (Fever Dream Studios/Hulu), Harlem (Amazon/NBC Universal), Mother’s Instinct (Anton/FreckleFilms), Anything’s Possible (Amazon), Ramy (Hulu), among others. Intimacy Choreography credits include: Off-Broadway; A Guide for the Homesick, Still…: Regional: Equus, West Side Story, Mama Mia, Heathers, She Kills Monsters, Stories from an Execution, Corriolanius, Indecent, and many more. She is the first invited guest to speak on Intimacy Coordination at the Berlin Film Festival (2023/2024) and SXSW Film Festival (2023). She contributed to the first book on intimacy, Staging Sex; Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Theatrical Intimacy, she co-founded The Journal of Consent Based Performance, she has published numerous articles on consent and intimacy, and has been interviewed on many podcasts. She recently contributed to the book Stanislavski and Intimacy with Routledge Publishing. She is the lead teacher of German, Austrian, and Swiss Intimacy Coordinators in collaboration with Culture Change Hub and the BFFS (the German Federal Actors Association). Her upcoming book is Consent in the Acting Classroom. She has been a guest artist on intimacy and consent-based training at educational and artistic institutions around the world. She has established herself as the go-to person for consent-based practice internationally. Rikard has been coaching and teaching for 20 years and has received the Kennedy Center Medallion for her contributions to Intimacy Direction/Choreography, the ATHE Ellen Stewart Award for Sustained Scholarship and Creativity, the Excellence in Teaching and Advising Award for the Colleges of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities at USC Upstate, and the USC Upstate Glasswing Butterfly award for creating the TIE Educator Advocate Program. She has taught theatre at the University of Virginia, Stephen F. Austin State University, Brown University, and the University of Miami. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, the National Alliance of Acting Teachers, the SAFD, ATME, ATHE, and VASTA. She is based in the home of the Cherokee Nation, Asheville, North Carolina, and is a mom of twins. Insta: @laurarikardprofessoric