Topiary is a media artist, writer, film curator, and educator with a specialty in feminist, queer, environmental and urban studies media practices. Her writing has been published in Millennium Film Journal, Feminist Media Histories, Camera Obscura, Film Quarterly, JCMS, and included in collection Reclaiming Popular Documentary (Indiana UP, 2021). Her recent work includes the short documentary film Lesbian Custody (2025) and the documentary film podcast series Animal-Vegetable-Mineral.

Topiary’s multimedia performances and film installations have been presented in theaters, art galleries, and museums including at Southern Exposure, Threadwaxing Space, the Lab, Abrons Arts Center, Dixon Place, PS122, the Oakland Museum of California, and in many film festivals across the US and internationally including at Frameline, Image+Nation, the New York Video Festival, the Walker Art Center, Chicago International Film Festival, MIX/NY, MIX/Brazil, New Fest, the Paris Lesbian Film Festival, and Queerscreen. She has worked in the programming department of the Mill Valley Film Festival, the curatorial department of the Oakland Museum of California, and has written and edited publications for Canyon Cinema. In the ‘90s, Topiary toured with the infamous spoken word circus Sister Spit. She is the recipient of a MacDowell fellowship, and has an MFA in Film/Video from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College and a theory/practice PhD in Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a Continuing Lecturer in the Film & Digital Media department at UC Santa Cruz.