The Founding of our intimacy collective

Our collective began as a journey of building community. In 2023, Carly DW Bones hosted an intimacy meetup in Highland Park where Olivia Ku, Jen Albert, and Veronica Burt first connected. Olivia and Jen were among the first intimacy coordinators to work on vertical productions—projects that would eventually grow into a billion-dollar industry. They supported one another, “holding the line” together, and soon brought Veronica into the fold. 

Wanting to continue fostering community, the three of them experimented with different platforms for an intimacy professionals community space. They tried a private Slack channel, considered Discord, Facebook groups, Instagram messaging, or even a group text thread.

In 2024, Cutter Ray Palacios recognized the need for continued community building, independently started testing out discussion platforms such as Discord, and began hosting intimacy meetups in Burbank. At one of these gatherings, Olivia met Jasmine Nicole, and with Cutter’s encouragement we committed to building out a Discord community. Jasmine had previously ran another IP discord, and utilized that same format to co-create a new IP Discord together with Olivia. The first wave of members came from Chelsea Pace’s first Open Intimacy Creatives workshop weekend in Los Angeles, organized by Nancy Cohen.

Over the following year, the Discord grew to more than 100 members and hosted several peer-to-peer learning workshops led by Cutter, Jen, and Rachel Flesher. As the community expanded, the need for structure and collective identity became clear. After bringing in Hailey Mashburn and Meleane Havili as additional moderators of the Discord, we started exploring ways to accessibly share important updates beyond the confines of our private discussion boards. A newsletter team was formed, spearheaded by lead designer Pepper Humphrey, and with it came the question of what to call this growing network.

In August 2025, the Intimacy Collective Los Angeles (ICLA) was officially born—a name that reflects both our local roots and our commitment to building safe, collaborative, and sustainable practices for intimacy work in film, television, and beyond. Soon, the first issue of our newsletter "Holding Space" will be published in September 2025 and we hope to follow it with many more accessible resources for intimacy professionals, consent forward creatives, and entertainment industry crew members. 

Without the passion and support of the people mentioned above and the other members of the collective, we would not have the vibrant community we have the pleasure of leading today.

With immense gratitude,

Olivia Ku & Jasmine Nicole

Co-Founders of the Intimacy Collective Los Angeles