Down the street, Kelly assists with distribution of a different sort through her work in Warner Brothers’ legendary prop house, continuing a diverse career that has included everything from running cameras to rigging equipment to leading studio tours. Now she oversees large-scale rental deals for television and movie crews seeking to breathe life into their productions by tapping into the incredible collection of physical artifacts stored in the historic facility.
“It’s a hundred-year-old building with four stories full of every item you could possibly think of to dress a set, from furniture to rugs to lamps to a small kitchen,” she described.
When not working, the movie buffs rarely miss an opportunity to soak up the history all around them, sometimes to their detriment. Garrido laughed heartily recalling the time Kelly was so focused on reading a plaque detailing the wonders of Disney’s multiplane camera that she missed a chance to meet Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.
“I was handed a camera before I got the keys to my dorm.”
Both trace their careers to Berry, where Kelly remembers “playing with cameras” for hours her first day on campus. She sought “the biggest experience with the most opportunity possible,” and Berry delivered.
Thriving as part of a collaborative creative environment in which faculty and staff mentors encouraged students to stretch themselves and seek new challenges, the visual communication and technical theatre major gained experience and confidence working for Viking Fusion, the Berry College Theatre Company, and the college’s marketing and communications office.
The same was true for Garrido, who started college as the son of a faculty member and remained after his parents moved to Texas, benefiting from a Gate of Opportunity Scholarship funded by longtime Berry supporter Audrey B. Morgan. Arriving two years after Kelly, he took advantage of many of the same opportunities while also finding time to don the “Victor the Viking” costume as a member of the cheerleading team (“I never let him forget it!” she quipped).
The couple first met in the spring of Kelly’s third year on campus when political pundit Cokie Roberts visited Berry as a Gloria Shatto lecturer. Working in video production for marketing and communications, Garrido arrived at the Cage Center intent on plugging his equipment into the sound board for Roberts’ presentation only to find Kelly in that spot. When he tried to claim it, the spunky Viking Fusion reporter’s reply of “Get here sooner” left him dumbstruck.
“I laughed so hard,” he related. “It was like, ‘Fair enough.’”
Not long after, they began working together at Viking Fusion, ultimately collaborating on such projects as the award-winning Going Up web series about two people stuck in an elevator, all while kindling a friendship that quickly grew into so much more.
