Erica Tremblay

Tremblay grew up in Seneca, Missouri, a rural community near Joplin, Missouri. In 2007, she moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.[1] While there she wrote, produced and starred in Tiny Red Universe, a short film which aired on IFC.[2]

In 2012, she released Heartland: A Portrait of Survival.[3] The film documents the effects of the 2011 Joplin tornado which destroyed a quarter of the city and caused about $2.8 billion worth of damage.[4][5] Tremblay, who was living in Los Angeles at the time but had previously lived in Joplin, had relatives still living in her hometown.[6][7] She traveled to the town with a film crew and documented the aftermath for a four-week period.[1][8] The film, which features several stories like the Joplin Found Photos project,[9] was shown at the Omaha Film Festival,[10] and at St. Louis International Film Festival.[11]

In 2014, Tremblay released In the Turn, a documentary film that revolves around a ten-year-old transgender girl from Timmins, Ontario.[12] The film began as a Kickstarter project to profile the Vagine Regime, "a queer roller derby collective," in a documentary film. Tremblay received a message from Crystal's mother that recounted the negative experiences her daughter has had in asserting her gender identity and how she is unable to participate in a sports because of this. Tremblay, who herself identifies as queer, decided to refocus the documentary around Crystal.[3][12]

In 2016, Tremblay was awarded a National Artist Fellowship at the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.[13][14] As of March, 2017, Tremblay serves as Bustle's director of video; before joining Bustle, she worked for Hearst Digital Media.[15]