Stacy Lorts is a producer and development executive working across feature films, documentaries, animation and commercials.

Currently, Stacy is the Head of Production for Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning director Irene Taylor’s production company, Vermilion Films. Stacy runs the slate of production and development projects while also acting as Supervising Producer on Taylor’s most recent film Trees and Other Entanglements (HBO). She produced the upcoming feature documentary I Am: Celine Dion with Sony Music Entertainment and Amazon MGM Studios.

Stacy started her career in development at Fox 2000 Pictures, assisting on films including The Devil Wears Prada, Marley and Me and Walk The Line.

Later serving as Executive Director of Development at Laika Studios, Stacy optioned and developed material for feature stop-motion animated films including The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and the upcoming adaptation of the book Wildwood.

Stacy’s commercial experience comes from overseeing global production for the advertising agency and production company Sockeye, where she produced content for a variety of global clients like Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, Tillamook Ice Cream and K-Swiss.

SYD RAFTER brings a broad range of industry experience to her role at Vermilion Films. Syd most recently produced the I Am: Celine Dion ASL music video series for the original motion picture soundtrack and associate produced the feature film, which quickly became Amazon Prime’s most popular documentary of all-time. Syd also served as associate producer for an unannounced feature documentary co-produced with Marlee Matlin and HBO. Her other documentary credits include HBO’s Trees and Other Entanglements and Leave No Trace (Hulu) which went on to win a duPont-Columbia award.

Before her role at Vermilion, Syd spent three years working in Los Angeles as a junior talent agent with Innovative Artists, pitching clients and becoming seasoned with contract negotiations. For six years, Syd was the VIP relations and event producer at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival and Atlanta Television Festival. Syd’s career began in local casting for films with Netflix, Lionsgate, Searchlight and BBC. Before all that, Syd spent 15 years competitively show-jumping around the United States.

PETER RICHARDSON was a producer on Trees and Other Entanglements, and was Director of Photography on Saving Pelican and One Last Hug. His thoughtful and compelling documentary work has gained widespread recognition, including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and an Emmy nomination for his documentary, How to Die in Oregon.

More recently, Peter has directed non-fiction series with Netflix, the Oprah Winfrey Network and Participant Media. When not busy traveling the world directing his own films, Peter brings his expert vision and sensibilities to the Vermilion team.

NIGEL JAQUISS is the lead investigative producer at Vermilion, leveraging his career in print journalism to support his work at Vermilion. Nigel has focused his reporting on abuses of power. He received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for revealing a former Oregon governor’s sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl. Nigel’s other awards include three first place prizes from the group Investigative Reporters and Editors, a National Press Foundation Chairman’s Citation for reporting on corruption in Oregon, and three Bruce Baer Awards, given annually to Oregon’s top reporter. Nigel received the 2015 Investigative Reporters & Editors Medal for stories that led to the resignation of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.

He has been a reporter for Willamette Week in Portland, Ore. since 1998. Prior to working as a reporter, he traded oil in New York and Singapore for 11 years. Nigel graduated from Columbia University’s School of Journalism, where he studied with Vermilion’s founder, Irene Taylor.

JULIE BEGEY SEUREAU is a Producer at Vermilion. Paris born, now New York based, Julie started her career in France working for the Walt Disney Company. In 2011, she moved to New York to pursue a MFA in Creative Producing at Columbia University. Since then, Julie has established herself as an independent documentary film producer and has worked on a variety of acclaimed documentary features and docu-series for HBO (including the Academy Award winning short Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press One), Apple (The Me You Can’t See, The Line), Showtime (American Jihad; Enemies: The President, Justice and the FBI), CNN (Death Row Stories), A&E (CultureShock; JailCam), Netflix (Weapon of Beauty), Amazon (The New Yorker Presents) and PBS (Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story).

BRIAN KINKLEY was the animation director for Moonlight Sonata and created the animation for Vermilion’s signature hummingbird logo. Learn more about his work at kinkley.com

SNOW DOWD graduated from Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts in Toronto and earned an MFA in arts leadership from Seattle University. She enjoys working collaboratively to create design solutions for print and screen. The branding materials and film title designs done for Vermilion over the past 15 years are some of her favorite projects.

M. SPENCER REED and Reed Post are proud to support Vermilion’s post-production workflows and technology. Prior to joining Vermilion, Spencer spent time as an Assistant Editor in Los Angeles, and has a decade of experience in IT Management from his time in the Chicagoland area.

Spencer has worked on a number of films with Vermilion, including Leave No Trace, Trees and Other Entanglements and I Am: Celine Dion.