Hot Shots 2025: Emma Weissensteiner

Intimacy co-ordinator is a relatively new role in TV, but a vitally important one. Liverpool-based Emma Weissensteiner brings 20 years working in movement direction as a professional dancer and stage choreographer.

A graduate of London’s Central School of Ballet, she has trained with Moving Body Arts, ISS and IDC, and received her intimacy co-ordination certificate from Film Intimacy.

Undaunted by changing her career at the age of 43, Weissensteiner was fuelled by a lifelong passion for physical storytelling and a deep motivation to promote inclusivity, advocacy, creativity and consent for cast, crew and productions as a whole by creating meaningful dialogue around constructing scenes containing sensitive, traumatic or exposing work.

As a mother of two, one of whom has complex autism that profoundly affects their communication, Weissensteiner has had to juggle her career transition and training with her full-time care responsibilities.

She gained her first intimacy co-ordinator credit in 2023 on the IRIS-nominated short Bleach and her first high-end drama credit on Left Bank’s This City Is Ours, where, combining her intimacy work with her choreography skills, she oversaw the cast’s dance scene to Andy Williams’ House Of Bamboo, which became a viral hit.

“Emma was fantastic at understanding and co-ordinating the different cast needs and levels of experience and created an amazing piece of choreography,” says producer Simon Maloney. “Emma also created a brilliant atmosphere on set while co-ordinating our intimate scenes and helped to create a safe space where all our cast and crew could do their best work.”