Amanda Kari McHugh

Amanda Kari McHugh is a Brooklyn-based audio producer, multimedia journalist, and engagement strategist drawn to strange-but-human stories at the intersection of arts, culture, labor, tech, ethics, and social change. She holds dual master’s degrees from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she studied journalism with an arts & culture concentration and engagement journalism.

Her audio work blends reporting, interviews, narrative structure, and community-centered storytelling. She is currently developing Rendered Obsolete, an investigative narrative podcast about how AI, 3D scanning, and digital likeness technologies are affecting stunt professionals and the future of creative labor. The project has been supported by UnionDocs’ Pod Pod Fellowship and an SPJ mini-grant, and draws on interviews with stunt performers, VFX supervisors, AI experts, labor sources, lawyers, and scan technology companies.

Amanda’s reporting has appeared in and aired on outlets including The Texas Standard, TPR, StoryCorps, The Mott Haven Herald, The Hollywood Reporter, Vice, Time Out New York, NYCity News Service, CUNY TV, and more. At The Texas Standard, she reported a two-part special on adoptees’ fight for access to original birth certificates, which became one of the network’s most engaging stories across social media. She also created Voices of Adoption, a multimedia engagement project spanning TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Substack, virtual events, and community feedback loops; one video responding to the Dobbs opinion leak reached more than 140,000 views and sparked over 2,000 comments.

Before shifting deeper into journalism and audio, Amanda worked across film, television, documentary, live events, and photography. She was a producer on the Pivot docuseries Life Line Booth, UPM for the viral musical comedy video “Burning Man: The Musical,” and a producer on the award-winning webseries Slice. She also worked as an Associate Producer on the Kickstarter campaign for the feature documentary I Know Catherine, the Log Lady, presented by David Lynch, which raised nearly $300,000.

Amanda is especially interested in projects that combine rigorous reporting with personality, curiosity, and a strong sense of audience. She is available for audio producing, reporting, tape editing, story development, interview booking, engagement strategy, audience/community work, and select video or multimedia projects.