OHIO Alumna Heidi Ha’s journey and work at Warner Brothers

Heidi Ha, Ohio University alumna and former GRID Lab employee, has begun her professional career in media working at Warner Bros. as a production assistant.

Ha grew up in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and moved across the country to California in January of 2020 after graduation. During the summer of 2020, Ha was notified of a job opening for the Netflix show "You," through her former professor Roger Cooper, who is the director of the OHIO-in-LA program in the School of Media Arts and Studies. Shortly after learning about the opening, Ha applied and got the job in September. She now works with the production supervisor of the show as the production assistant.

Prior to moving to California, Ha worked at the GRID Lab from 2018 to 2019, until her graduation in 2019, running social media accounts for the lab, then transitioning into marketing. At Ohio University, she was in the media arts and studies program and majored in integrated media with a certificate in social media and a focus on virtual reality. Ha said she chose the field based on her lifelong interest in media, specifically YouTube and video production.

Ha said that during her time working at the GRID Lab, she learned a great deal about independence that she would use at her job at Warner Bros.

Ha detailed her week in the job: She generally comes in early in the morning, around 4-6 a.m., before the first crew and is responsible for those on set and in production to adhere to CDC-regulated COVID-19 guidelines. This includes checking people in for testing, making sure individuals are maintaining proper social distancing and wearing masks, administering PPE kits, and hand sanitation. Ha works for the COVID team, and her work is imperative to ensuring the safety of those working on the show. She also works on set to ensure the quality of scenes; her responsibilities on set are to make sure pedestrians don’t wander onto the set and get in any shots where they aren’t supposed to be.

Ha is grateful for her work at Warner Bros. and the opportunity to work in California, as she has been interested in L.A. since coming to OHIO as a transfer student in 2016. She is also grateful for the professors she met at OHIO who have helped her get to where she is now. She said that the School of Media Arts and Studies gave her the tools and skills to advertise herself, as well as her confidence to take the leap and work in California. Ha's advice to current and upcoming students is to create meaningful relationships with their professors.

Regarding future ambitions, Ha intends to stay in California for a while and would like to be a producer for a film or television series one day. She is also interested in content creation and traveling and would like to continue her career in media.

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