Stunt Performer Jahnel Curfman On Recent Emmy Nomination, Motherhood And Success In A Male-Dominated Industry

From Gymnastics and Dance to Avatar

Curfman’s physicality has always been central to her identity. As a child, she was drawn to activities that allowed her to push herself physically. She grew up riding four-wheelers and dirt bikes and describes herself as a tomboy. At the same time, she developed a deep connection to dance, eventually pursuing it professionally and performing as a Lakers Girl in 2006. Dance gave Curfman an appreciation for movement, performance, and choreography. But she says it didn’t fully allow her to explore another side of her physical identity.

“I loved the femininity of it because I am a very feminine individual,” she says. “But I also have this sort of rough and rugged toughness about me that I never felt like I truly got to express through my dancing.” That changed when she auditioned for what her agent described as a “super top-secret project” looking for tall, athletic women who moved well.

The project was Cameron’s Avatar. Curfman joined the film’s performance-capture team and spent three years working alongside Cameron, producer Jon Landau, and the production’s stunt team. It was her first film and, in many ways, her introduction to the mechanics of Hollywood filmmaking.

She performed harness and wire work and helped create the physical movement of the film’s native characters. The performance-capture process also required the relatively small team to portray numerous characters. “The stunt team was about 12 of us doing the work of like 200,” Curfman explains. “You get one scene, and you play a character in that scene, but then you go back, and now you play a different character.” The experience was physically demanding, but Curfman never viewed it as something she couldn’t handle.

“It was incredibly physical, and I loved it,” she says. More importantly, Avatar gave her a new understanding of what her body could do—and introduced her to a career she says she never knew she wanted. “I always say that being a stuntwoman is the job I never knew I always wanted to do,” Curfman says.

For her, stunt work let her combine the disciplines she developed through gymnastics and dance with a different kind of physical freedom. “The first time I was able just to run and throw myself with wild abandon onto the floor, there was something about it that just felt so good,” she says.

The Reality Behind the Action

Curfman’s evolution from performer to stunt coordinator has also given her a deeper understanding of what audiences don’t see when they watch action on screen. A stunt that lasts only a few seconds can require hours—or days—of preparation, choreography, safety planning, and rehearsal. And while Hollywood uses sophisticated equipment and visual effects to make stunts safer, Curfman emphasizes that the physical risk remains real. When she first began working in stunts, her family often assumed some kind of movie magic protected performers from injury.

“I think the one thing that I would like audiences to recognize is that we are putting our safety, our bodies, our well-being on the line to make things look as real and organic as possible,” she says. The risks, however, are calculated. “We also, on the stunt coordination side, make it as safe as possible,” she explains. “But at the end of the day, the concrete is the concrete, and you still have to hit it and make it look good.”

Curfman compares stunt professionals to professional athletes. “We are sacrificing our bodies for our art,” she says. That sacrifice is part of what makes the work creatively rewarding for her. Curfman says she has never become jaded by the physical demands because every project presents a new challenge.

“I love what I do so much, and every project is different,” she says. “I feel like I get to be creative in different ways with different projects.” She particularly enjoys taking something written on a page and transforming it into something unexpected. “You read the script, and you see what’s on the page, and then I take that, and I make it into something that is my own and a little bit unexpected from what you’re reading in the script,” she says.

Why Stranger Things Was So Special

That creative approach became particularly important during her work on Stranger Things. For one major sequence, Curfman and her team received an animatic showing how the scene was supposed to look. The challenge was that the sequence shown in the animatic couldn’t realistically be filmed exactly as presented. The stunt team therefore had to figure out how to translate the visual concept into practical action.

Curfman credits series creators Matt and Ross Duffer with encouraging the production to do as much practically as possible and then enhance those elements with visual effects. The team used performers on wires for the gags, incorporated fire and large physical pulls, and created sequences in which characters were thrown through the air and pulled into vehicles.

The levitation sequences presented another unique challenge. “Levitation has its own challenges with making somebody look like they’re levitating without weird movements happening on the wire,” Curfman says.

Then there were the Demogorgons within the series. The creatures would ultimately be added through visual effects, meaning the performers had to act without necessarily having a physical creature in front of them.

The production also required six weeks of night shoots, compounded by Georgia’s summer thunderstorms and repeated lightning delays. “We were in the trenches together,” Curfman says. That sense of collective sacrifice ultimately became one reason the project means so much to her. Curfman realized she wasn’t simply working on another television series. She was participating in the final chapter of a cultural phenomenon.

“This pop cultural phenomenon of Stranger Things was coming to an end,” she says. “I was blessed to be a part of it.” The production also stood out for its cross-department collaboration. “Our producers were phenomenal,” she says. “They gave us everything we needed in terms of budget and resources, and the cast was so lovely.” Looking back, she says she recognized the importance of being present for the moment. “It was having that realization of this is a very special moment and time, and it will never be like this ever again,” she says. “So enjoy it and soak it in.”

Claiming a Seat at the Table

Curfman’s career has unfolded during a period of increasing visibility for women across Hollywood’s traditionally male-dominated production departments. But she doesn’t want her achievements reduced to gender alone. In fact, her current Emmy nomination carries particular significance because she says it makes her the only person nominated across all three Emmy stunt categories.

While there has been considerable attention this year around the number of women receiving recognition in the stunt categories, Curfman says her pride comes from something broader. “I find more pride in not necessarily being recognized as the first woman to do something, but just to be the first person overall to do something,” she says.

Her point isn’t that gender doesn’t matter. Instead, she wants her work evaluated on the same terms as anyone else’s. “I don’t want a seat at the table because I’m a woman,” she says. “I want a seat at the table because I’m genuinely the best person for the job, and I want my work to be recognized as such.”

Still, earning that seat hasn’t always been easy. Curfman says women entering stunt work can encounter objectification and vulnerability, particularly because the profession often involves physical contact, fight choreography, harnesses, and revealing wardrobe.

Early in her career, she says she sometimes felt that male colleagues viewed her as a performer rather than someone capable of advancing into other areas of the department.

“You really have to establish and say, ‘No, I’m not just a performer. I’m not just a stunt double. I’m going to coordinate now. I’m going to do fights. I’m going to be a part of the rigging team,’” she says. That progression, she believes, doesn’t always happen naturally for women.

“I think you have to consciously make it happen because that opportunity isn’t just given to you.” Her own experiences now shape how she runs sets. When women are going into harnesses on her productions, Curfman says she and Koda make sure a female representative is available to help performers feel comfortable. That is particularly important when working with minors. “I didn’t have that when I was coming up through the ranks,” she says.

Motherhood in a Male-Dominated Industry

Curfman’s experiences with gender and opportunity extend beyond her career. She is also a mother of four, and she says the industry’s assumptions about women and motherhood have changed considerably since she entered the profession. When she became pregnant with her son early in her stunt career, the advice she received from other stunt women was to keep the pregnancy private.

“Don’t let anybody know because they will write you off and they will never call you for a job again,” she recalls. So she hid it, and eight weeks after giving birth, Curfman returned to performing. By the time people learned she had become a mother, she had already demonstrated that motherhood had not ended her career.

“It was like, ‘Oh, okay. Well, you can have a child and be a stuntwoman as well,’” she says. Today, Curfman sees more women successfully balancing motherhood with demanding careers in stunts and production. But she is candid about the sacrifices involved; her children have experienced the long hours and absences that come with both parents working in the entertainment industry.

“Our kids have sacrificed,” she says, becoming emotional as she discusses the subject. At the same time, she hopes her career serves as an example for her daughters. “I feel like it’s a good example of how you can have a family, and you can be successful in an industry that’s really hard,” she says.

Curfman says she and Koda intentionally maximize the time they have together as a family, taking advantage of opportunities to travel and spend quality time together. Their youngest child, 13, will join his parents on the Emmy red carpet this year. For Curfman, that’s another full-circle moment.

Building the Next Generation

While Curfman is proud of how far women have come in Hollywood’s stunt industry, she doesn’t believe the progress is complete. She points to the growing number of women working as camera operators, grips, producers, studio executives, and stunt coordinators as evidence of meaningful change. “But I wouldn’t call it adequate,” she says. “I think there’s still a lot of room, a lot of upward mobility to where we can see even more.”

For her, the next step is exposure. Curfman never knew stunt work was a career option growing up. She believes more intentional pathways should connect young athletes with the entertainment industry.

In particular, she envisions programs that introduce college athletes who aren’t pursuing professional sports to stunt performance. “Your body is your tool,” she says.

A gymnast, dancer, football player, or basketball player who doesn’t continue professionally in athletics could potentially take those skills into film and television. “Working in film and television and being physical and working as a stunt performer is an option for you,” she says.

That visibility could ultimately transform the next generation of women. Because Curfman’s unconventional journey—from gymnastics and dance to Avatar, from stunt performer to coordinator, and now from Emmy nominee to potential Emmy winner—demonstrates that the path doesn’t always have to be obvious before you take it.