Contessa is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist, an Emmy-nominated producer. She tells stories about identity, movement and social change, with a focus on race and gender.

From 2014 – 2018, she was a producer at CNN, where she created, produced, directed, shot and edited award-winning original series and documentaries, including the feature documentary, The Feminist on Cellblock Y, Women Who March, Women Who March: The Movement, This Is Birth with Lisa Ling and the 2016 News & Documentary Emmy-nominated Feeding America’s Most Vulnerable Children. She has additionally contributed to VICE, PBS NewsHour, PBS Frontline, TIME, CBS, Al Jazeera, Vox, WIRED, AFROPUNK and documentary features, including SHOWTIME’s Surge (dir. Hannah Rosenzweig, Wendy Sachs) and forthcoming films, including Black Mothers (dir. Débora Souza Silva), Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (dir. Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster) and others.

Contessa holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.A. in Journalism from New York University, with a concentration in Documentary Film. Her thesis documentary, School of Yoga, screened at the 2015 DOC NYC film festival. She is currently creating and directing independent film and media projects under her production company, Cocomotion Pictures, and was awarded a 2020 artist residency with SFFILM.