I'm a creative strategist who shoots, animates, and edits. I've spent the last decade tackling all sorts of creative problems, from changing how people think about math to figuring out how to animate a full-sized piano.
Brilliant is an interactive app that makes math feel intuitive, visual, and engaging. As part of a small creative team, I worked across marketing and product: directing and editing ads that helped us scale Meta spend 4x, shaping the onboarding redesign that lifted signups 6.5%, and animating sponsorship segments featured in videos with 700M+ combined views on YouTube’s biggest science channels.
Brilliant's premium upsell ads ran between lessons, right when users just wanted to get back to learning. Looking at how Duolingo used its cast of characters and kept each ad focused on a single value prop, I proposed a similar approach: one clear idea per ad, with room to entertain rather than push a hard sell.
For some ads, I developed the concept and script. For others, I built on my colleagues' ideas, finding more humor through animation, timing, editing, and sound design. Users liked the ads enough to mention them in App Store reviews, and the new approach lifted trial starts and checkouts roughly 20% over the previous ad. I animated three of the six launched ads, developed the concept for a fourth, and built the character rigs used across the set.
For our first live-action brand campaign at Brilliant, we partnered with Denver-based production company Lumenati on four 30-second spots. We explored two directions: one contrasting Brilliant's hands-on approach with traditional instruction, and another turning everyday curiosity into math and science lessons.
I worked on storyboards and set design, collaborating with our illustrators and Lumenati's set dressers, and consulted our math and science experts to make sure the lessons fit the stories. On set in Denver, I supported the crew and made props by hand, filling notebooks and Post-its with handwritten math that would hold up to a close look. In post, I animated the interactive problems and composited the transitions between live action and the product.
Much of my work comes down to making complicated ideas easier to understand. I’ve made educational videos about global food systems, racial divides in the working class, and prosecutorial power; animated compensation and performance review guidance for eBay teams worldwide; and turned conference talks into visual notes in real time.
Outside of work, I tend to find new things to get absorbed in. Sometimes that means teaching myself to knit a sweater or building a hydroponic garden. I love coming up with an ambitious idea and figuring out how to pull it off.
Sometimes, I get absorbed for years. I competed internationally in ultimate frisbee and won the Callahan Award, college ultimate’s national MVP award. The highlight video I made for my nomination went viral. People still come up to me at tournaments to tell me what it meant to them, which is a pretty good reason to have spent all that time editing footage of myself playing frisbee.
In my next role, I’m looking for something I can get that invested in, with room to keep trying new things. Ideally, on a collaborative team where I can help shape an idea and do the work of bringing it to life.
“Marisa is talented, adaptable, endlessly curious, and grounded in the fundamentals of good storytelling […] She’s a creative team’s ultimate Swiss Army knife, moving effortlessly between any and every creative project.”
“If I were a client, Marisa is the woman I’d turn to when I’m a little bit desperate, in over my head, and have no idea which way to turn. Her competence, creativity, and practicality make her an excellent match for righting the ship.”
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