Our Team
Rachel Flesher
Founding Member, CEO, Head of Education
Rachel Lee Flesher (they/he/she) is an industry-leading Intimacy Coordinator, Fight Director, and movement specialist working across film, television, theatre, and education. They are a certified Intimacy Coordinator on the SAG-AFTRA registry, a SAG-AFTRA stunt performer, certified Intimacy Director, certified Fight Director and Instructor, actor, director, movement director, certified Gender and Sexuality Educator, and dedicated teacher.
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Rachel is internationally recognized for advancing safer, more ethical practices for intimate and hyper-exposed content. Their work centers on developing and implementing best practices that prioritize consent, clarity, and creative freedom for performers. Rachel currently serves on the SAG-AFTRA collaboration team advising on the standardization, codification, and implementation of on-set intimacy coordination guidelines. Their Intimacy Coordination credits span more than 60 productions across Amazon, Hulu, FX, CBS, Showtime, Netflix, HBO, Starz, Apple TV+, and beyond.
A leader in both intimacy and violence choreography, Rachel is a Certified Fight Director, Certified Fight Instructor, and Advanced Actor Combatant with Fight Directors Canada, and an Instructor with Tactics on Set. They began intimacy directing in 2009 after training with Tonia Sina, and began developing intimacy coordination in 2016. Rachel was the first Intimacy Coordinator to work in Chicago and among the first to work on SAG-AFTRA sets in Los Angeles, helping to establish the role nationally at a pivotal moment in the industry.
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Rachel is certified through Intimacy Directors International and Intimacy Professionals Education Collective (IPEC), where they are also Founder and CEO. IPEC is a SAG-AFTRA-accredited training program dedicated to individualized, radically accessible education for the next generation of intimacy professionals.
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Rachel’s Fight Direction and Intimacy Direction have been featured at leading institutions including Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Shakespeare Dallas, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf for Young Adults, The Old Globe, Pasadena Playhouse, and many others.
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A deeply committed educator and mentor, Rachel has trained and supported many of today’s working fight directors, intimacy directors, and intimacy coordinators. Their ongoing research integrates mental health first aid, trauma-informed practices, and collaboration with psychologists and mental health professionals. This work has led to the development of Traumaturgy—an evolving methodology for safely staging and performing narratives of trauma and abuse with rigor, care, and artistic integrity.
Rachel specializes in working with trans and non-binary performers, queer intimacy, and stories involving non-consensual intimacy. Their work has been described as “daring, realistic, and transcendent”—hailed as some of the most “vital and impactful” work on contemporary stages. Rachel’s mission is to cultivate consent-driven environments where performers are empowered to take creative risks, tell difficult stories, and do their boldest work safely
Jyreika Guest
Founding Member, In-Person Workshop Coordinator
Jyreika Guest is an actor, dancer, and intimacy director based in Chicago. Thankful to God for continuing to guide her and to her family and community for loving her. Theatre credits include: FELA! (Olney Theatre), How Blood Go and What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Congo Square); Tragedy of King Christophe (formerly House Theatre of Chicago); Lindiwe U/S (Steppenwolf); Frankenstein (Remy Bumppo); columbinus (The Yard Theatre Company); In the Blood (Red Tape Theatre); Fly Honeys Show (The Inconvenience Project); The Wiz (Kokandy Productions). Intimacy direction credits include: Ain't No Mo (Woollymammoth Theatre); Is God Is (Red Orchid Theatre); Groundhog Day, Rock of Ages (Paramount Theatre); Fire Shut Up In My Bones and Champion (Lyric Opera); Sheepdog (Shattered Globe); Brooklyn Laundry, Little Women, Selling Kabul, Intimate Apparel, Fireflies (Northlight Theatre); The Tasters (Rivendell Theater Ensemble); The Light (Coalescence Theatre); The Children of Edgar and Nina (The Neighborhood Theatre); October Storm and The Last Pair of Earlies, Hoodoo Love- Asst. (Raven Theatre); First Deep Breath - Asst. (Victory Gardens). Film/TV: Starz Power Book Series:Force, Rough River Lake, and The Poet Series.
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Jessica Bennett
Founding Member, COO
Jessica Erin Bennett (Pronouns: she/her) is a queer, Atlanta based artist, movement professional, stunt and fight specialist, educator, working mom, partner, and generalized cartoon character whose work can be seen in theatres such as the Nashville Repertory Theatre, The Academy Theatre (Atlanta), 7 Stages (Atlanta), True Colors Theatre (Atlanta), Aurora Theatre Company (Atlanta), Sypher Arts Studios (Los Angeles), and studios such as Disney, Fx, Netflix, Paramount, ABC, Hulu, Amazon. Jessica has received a BFA in Acting from the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, and has spent the last nearly two decades as a film and theatre professional. Jessica is a Guest Artist as the University of Central Arkansas where she co-teaches courses on Theatrical violence & stage combat, and teaches at theatrical violence and intimacy workshops globally, including the international workshop, The Paddy Crean in 2026. She believes deeply in the idea that through technique and play, we can push boundaries of storytelling. Jessica is proud to be a founding member of Intimacy Professionals Education Collective and serve as the Chief Operating Officer.
Charlie Baker
Founding Member, Creative Director
Charlie Baker (he/him, they/them) is a Jeff Award nominated violence & intimacy professional, gender educator, magician, and professional clown. Charlie graduated from Oklahoma City University with a BFA in acting, where he met Rachel Flesher and the two immediately began collaborating. In 2016 Charlie came out as transgender and started Xploring Gender, an online gender education platform with the mission to educate about common misconceptions about gender, as well as provide proof for trans youth that a happy life as your favorite self is possible. After years of training and teaching physical storytelling, in 2018 Rachel began mentoring Charlie in Intimacy Direction. Since that time Charlie has gone on to work with companies such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Unseen, Once on This Island), Notre Dame Shakespeare (King Lear), American Blues Theatre (Fences, Roan @ the Gate), Court Theatre (Othello), Marriott Theatre (West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate) , Kokandy Productions (Jekyll / Hyde), and many others. Charlie has also worked with the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and Northwestern, and his screen work can be found on OTV, Showtime, and independent streaming platforms.
Chicago / Midwest
Chels Morgan
Director of Accessibility & Inclusion
Chels Morgan, MFA, CSE (pronouns: they / them / elle) - is a Black & Dominican, AuDHD, and Queer director, educator, cultural competency specialist, and intimacy, fight and movement choreographer. Their intimacy, movement and cultural competency work has been featured at New York Theatre Workshop (Off-Broadway), Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Shakespeare Theater Company, Center Theatre Group, American Conservatory Theater, the Old Globe Theatre and internationally, as well as on talented academic stages such as the University of Michigan, DePaul University and Northwestern University, to name a few. Their intimacy coordination work for film and television has played at Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) and on the AllBlk Streaming Platform. Chels has received a BA in Media Arts Production from Emerson College, an MFA in Directing Fiction for Film & Television from Loyola Marymount University, is an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator (CSE), a Certified Holistic Sexuality Educator (CHSE), and has an additional certification by the ANTE UP! Virtual Freedom Professional Development School for Justice Workers in the history, implementation, and troubleshooting of various justice frameworks related to the sexuality field. Their writings on Intimacy and Cultural Competency can be read in the Journal of Consent Based Performance (JCBP) as well as in the Intimacy Coordinator's Guidebook. Currently, Chels is an adjunct professor at DePaul University and is the Director of Accessibility and Inclusion here at the Intimacy Professionals Education Collective (IPEC).
Chicago / Midwest
Nicole Perry
Director of Praxis
Nicole Perry, MFA, CLMA, CID/C is a 3-time Silver Palm award-winning movement professional, working as an intimacy director, intimacy coordinator, and dance choreographer in South Florida. Career highlights include 3 Broward County Artist Investment Grants for dance and intimacy coordination for God Forbid on Hulu. Her intimacy work can be seen on stages across South Florida, Netflix, Showtime, Peacock, and more.
Nicole taught movement and dance for several South Florida institutions including the Palm Beach County School District and the University of Miami. She is published in Dance Teacher magazine, Conversations from the Dance Studies Association, and the Journal of Dance Education. Her contributions are included in multiple books. Her book, Care-full Creativity in Theatre and Dance Education: Consent-forward, Trauma-informed, Psychologically Safe Movement Pedagogy, was published by Routledge in January 2026.
Nicole is the Director of Praxis and Certification at the Intimacy Professionals Education Collective She is a founding member of Intimacy Direction in Dance and Momentum Stage, a nonprofit offering professional development for arts educators. With Momentum, she was a recipient of the Doris Duke Foundation Performing Arts and Technologies Grant.
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Matt Denney
Director of Research and Development
Matt Denney (he/him) is a Filipino-American Theatre Educator, Researcher, and Intimacy Director. He is the co-founder of Consent Creatives of Arizona, and is based in Tucson, AZ. Matt has a broad range of experience, having worked at various theaters across the country as an Intimacy Director, High School Drama Teacher, and Teaching Artist. His work has been showcased at several notable institutions, including East West Players, Circa Pintig, Arizona State University, Ottawa School of Theatre, the Center for Creative Photography, and the University of Arizona. Matt has also served on various National Endowment for the Arts Committees and is the current focus group representative leading the Theatre and Social Change focus group in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Matt is also a published researcher and PhD Candidate at the University of Arizona, his work can be seen in the Journal for Consent-Based Performance, Journal of Latinos and Education, and in A History of Intimacy Professionals in Entertainment: An Inside Look at a Movement, edited by Brooke Haney. Matt’s work is rooted in accessibility and activism in the arts. Through the use of education, immersive media, and artistic creation, he has been noted as a “trailblazer” for his work with Theatre for New Audiences, further instilling that the arts have always been rooted in activism.
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Syllabus Development Team
Our Syllabus Development team is passionate not only about how we bring education to everyone, but how we create a process that feels in depth, in contact with mentors, and scenario. based labs that best help you allocate your new skills to set, stage, or in a classroom.
Theatre Consultation Team
Are you a theatre looking to make your practices, especially around intimacy, more robust? Have a new show that you'd like face to face time with a working Intimacy Director for guidance? We have a team of folks that could meet you right where you are & help you achieve artistic goals.
Educators
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
These are the folks you will see in pre-recorded lectures, who will be with your during your mentor hours, & lab work. Not only are your educators trained specifically to teach within the IPEC model, they are also there to share their point of view & expertise.
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