Intimacy coordination is a professional practice that ensures actors and crew are protected, respected, and supported when creating scenes that involve physical touch, intimacy, nudity, or simulated sexual content. The intimacy coordinator works with the director, actors, and production team to choreograph these scenes safely, gain clear consent, establish personal boundaries, and maintain a closed, respectful environment on set. Beyond the creative aspect, the role helps prevent harassment, safeguards mental health, protects minors, and reduces the legal risks for productions — ensuring that intimate storytelling can be authentic and safe.
In a region where authentic storytelling is taking root, intimacy has often been hidden—even during moments when it defines narrative power. That’s about to change.
Nice Githinji, a celebrated actor, director, and producer with over two decades of theatre and cinematic experience, is stepping into the role of East & Central Africa’s pioneering Intimacy Coordinator. This role brings care, clarity, and consent to African storytelling. 
Awarded a scholarship supported by Safe Sets International, GIZ, Kenya Film Commission, and MultiChoice Talent Factory, Nice is training under global IC leaders Sara Blecher, Kate Lush, Dr. Émil Haarhoff, and Samantha Murray from Safe Sets International.
- Sara Blecher—an acclaimed South African director and internationally recognized Intimacy Coordinator—has overseen IC on titles such as Softlife, MTV Shuga Mashariki, Netflix’s Unseen, and HBO’s Wheel of Time. https://www.ssintimacycoordinators.com/sara-blecher
- Kate Lush, co-founder of Safe Sets, is a SAG-AFTRA-accredited IC and movement coach, with credits including Warrior Season 3 (HBO), Fatal Seduction (Netflix), and Fraksie (Showmax). https://www.ssintimacycoordinators.com/kate-lush/
- Dr. Haarhoff works with Netflix’s Savage Beauty, Showmax’s Adulting, and HBO’s Warrior. https://www.ssintimacycoordinators.com/emil-haarhoff/
- Samantha Murray’s recent projects include Chloé Domont’s Fair Play, Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother for Netflix, and Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer for Apple TV+ https://www.ssintimacycoordinators.com/samantha-murray/
As Africans, we tend to hide intimacy—as if it isn’t a natural part of life. But if we’re telling authentic stories, we must show humans in full. African love is rich, complex, beautiful, and it deserves to be seen with the same care as any other part of our identity.” Nice Githinji.
Nice joins a select group of professionals in the Safe Sets International programme — representing Kenya alongside another Kenyan participant, with South Africa contributing voices from Cape Town, Johannesburg, and KwaZulu-Natal. The cohort also includes industry practitioners from Rwanda, Australia, Ireland, and Norway. This diversity ensures that intimacy coordination protocols are shaped by a rich mix of cultural perspectives, rooted in every region’s reality while engaging with global best practices.
Her IC journey began with self-taught resources from the Intimacy Directors & Coordinators (IDC) website. This led to her first IC credit on Wanjeri Gakuru’s short film Transaction, followed by a lead IC role on the series Tuki, and most recently, a major assignment on MTV Shuga Mashariki under the mentorship of Sara Blecher. Intimacy coordination isn’t just about simulating sex scenes — it’s about setting up consent-based choreography, ensuring modesty protection, making sure production risks are dealt with beforehand, and preventing trauma for both cast and crew.
Intimacy Coordinating involves:
- Supporting scenes involving masturbation, kissing, nudity, or sexual violence with choreographed clarity.
- Preventing legal and reputational risks by maintaining detailed documentation of all consent protocols.
- Protecting minors and trauma survivors from exposure to triggering scenes.Helping actors separate work from personal boundaries.
- Supporting crew members who may also be affected by intimate or violent scenes.
Nice’s work doesn’t stop at film sets, she envisions a future where safe spaces, certified training programs, and civic education around consent and power dynamics are part of every African production pipeline. Her long-term goals include:
- Training more intimacy coordinators across East & Central Africa.
- Building localized protocols rooted in African cultural contexts.
- Advocating for policy inclusion in national film and creative industry legislation.
Nice Githinji isn’t just the face of IC in East and Central Africa—she is its future.
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