Natali Tereza Chavez is a professional actress and a Ph.D. candidate in the Film Department of the School of Fine Arts at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in the field of Virtual, Augmented, Mixed Reality and Cinema, under the supervision of Professor Nefeli Dimitriadi. She obtained a B.A. in European and International Business and Politics from the University of Macedonia, a M.Sc. in Services Management at Athens University of Economics and Business, and an Acting Diploma accredited by the Greek Ministry of Culture. She also possesses certificates, inter alia, in Pedagogy and Teaching, Artificial Intelligence, Python and Machine Learning. As an actress she has worked with various important theatrical and film directors. Her research interests lie in the area of Virtual Actors and their expressions using anthropological, cognitive and acting theories, animation, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence tools.

As a Fulbright Visiting Research Student, she will spend 6 months in the Mixed Reality Lab at the Institute for Creative Technologies of the University of Southern California. Her main scientific aim will be a theoretical and an experimental study of acting methods translation into meaningful data in scope of creation of a virtual actor with Artificial Intelligence component and its application in cognitive sciences. The opportunity given is invaluable as she will have the chance to work with pioneers in the scientific field and at the same time she will be able to have access to the technology that Hollywood studios use. The Mixed Reality Lab and her supervisor David Nelson collaborate with major film studios and production companies and that will offer her a rich tapestry of resources, connections, and creative synergies.