Intimacy coordinator
An intimacy coordinator is a staff member who ensures the well-being of actors who participate in sex scenes or other intimate scenes in theater, film and television production. Function. According to Intimacy Directors International, a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 by Alicia Rodis, Tonia Sina, and Siobhan Richardson that advocates for the function, an intimacy coordinator is expected to ensure that: The role of intimacy coordinator is not to be confused with that of an "intimacy choreographer", who specializes in the techniques of staging intimate scenes. History. Demand for the role grew in the U.S. entertainment industry  after the 2017 Weinstein scandal and the Me Too movement highlighted the often routine nature of sexual harassment and misconduct in the industry. Actors such as Emily Meade began to demand professional safeguards for their well-being on set, noting that given the structure of power in a production, actors (particularly young, inexperienced ones) might otherwise not feel able to speak up if directors, staff members or other actors disregarded their consent or previous agreements regarding intimate scenes. In 2017, the London talent agency Carey Dodd Associates fronted a campaign for an industry standard in handling scenes of intimacy using  guidelines developed by Ita O'Brien. In October 2018, the television network HBO adopted a policy of using intimacy coordinators for all its series and films with intimate scenes. Intimacy coordinators and intimacy workshops teaching best practices for intimate scenes were also beginning to be used in London theaters as of 2018. In January 2019, Netflix released "Sex Education", its first production that used an intimacy coordinator, Ita O'Brien.