Stacey Hempel

I've been in the post-audio industry for 33 years, and my work is all about bringing audio elements together seamlessly. As a re-recording mixer, I take the AAF and quick-timed reference after picture editorial has crafted the story visually, then I edit the dialogue, create sound design and backgrounds, and receive the final music from composers towards the end. I mix all those elements together so that when you're watching Bridgerton or Grey's Anatomy or whatever your favorite TV series is, the music that plays in the background, all the dialogue is able to be heard, sound effects sound real and worldly, footsteps are put in, and the score that plays underneath different scenes captures emotional moments. I balance all these elements against each other so that people aren't saying 'I don't understand what they're saying, I can't hear the dialogue because everything else is too loud, or vice versa.' I'm very seamless in what I do. Like I said, if you don't notice what I've done, I've done my job. My career started at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, one of the most prestigious regional theaters in the country, working on plays and musicals on their main stage. From there, I spent eight and a half years working in the audio department at the Oprah Winfrey Show. I moved to Los Angeles in 2005 and have been here almost 21 years. I've worked on everything from the Decade series with Tom Hanks and his production company that aired on CNN, to Lucasfilm, Disney+, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. I've been part of the audio team for the Grammy Awards broadcast and won multiple Emmys with those teams for both Oprah and the Grammy team. In 2022-2023, I mixed Season 2 of Down to Earth with Zac Efron for Netflix, an eight-part documentary series where I was the only person doing all the post-audio. It was a huge task but very fulfilling. Unbeknownst to me, they submitted my work to the Emmy Awards, and I was nominated for my first solo Emmy nomination, which was pretty amazing. People look at my resume and my IMDB page and they're like 'Holy moly, what happened?' Everything I do is notable and amazing.