This week on 8111, Alia Agha!!!
Alia was born in Damascus, Syria. Just before the age of 2, her family fled Syria and moved to Lebanon. After a time there, they boarded a ship and travelled to Brazil where they lived with Alia's mother's family. A few years later they emigrated to the United States and moved to Anaheim, California.
Growing up Alia loved art and spent hours making models, drawing, sculpting, and watching movies. She attended an all girls school and continued making art and going to the cinema. Her and her friends loved silent films and even dressed up like their favorite movie stars.
After high school she went off to San Francisco State University where she studied studied Cinema. The expense of filmmaking was a challenge so she transferred to UC Berkeley and earned her undergraduate degree in writing with an interest in writing for film.
A chance meeting at a party led Alia to an opportunity to become the receptionist at Industrial Light & Magic. After a year at the front desk she moved to work as a production assistant on Back to the Future 3. After a few years she left and went to work at Skellington as a production coordinator on Nightmare Before Christmas. She returned to ILM after that project wrapped and worked on Star Trek: Generations and Wolf.
Alia later went to work as a rotoscoper on Congo, Twister and 101 Dalmatians before transitioning to work as a 3D camera matchmover on Mission: Impossible. She worked on numerous projects and then had the opportunity to go work on set for Galaxy Quest. She's worked as a matchmover for 29 years.
Today Alia lives in Portland and working on a project for Laika. Alia's family life story is incredible. She's a great storyteller and it was fantastic to have the opportunity to catch up with her.
