3 Under 30: Claire Cardona '16

Set decorator

Claire Cardona ’16 is a storyteller—not with words or pictures, but with objects. As a set decorator for BuzzFeed’s in-house video production team, Claire adds extra dimension to the action taking place on screen. Whether lining the shelves of a kitchen set, setting the mood of a spooky show, or decorating a dressing room in pink, fluffy textures, there’s always a story to tell, whether you notice it or not.

Claire says: “One of my favorite things is when I get to decorate [for example] a teenage girl’s bedroom and dive deep into the character that is supposed to be living in that room. What would this girl have in her dresser drawers? Even if you’re not going to see it on camera, I like getting all the information that I can about the character and putting that into the set to make it feel like the person lives there.”

BuzzFeed, popularly known for its pop culture quizzes and celebrity content, is a video powerhouse, boasting more than 20 million subscribers on YouTube. Videos range widely from cooking shows to celebrity interviews to reality series. For just a glimpse of the variety of projects Claire works on, she has decorated sets for The Rise and Fall of the Peoples Temple Cult (also available to stream on Peacock), in which two commentators analyze the Jonestown massacre; a history quiz show called Terrible Tales; and fashion videos in which a fangirl is styled by her favorite K-Pop groups.

Before joining BuzzFeed’s Los Angeles studio in summer 2021, Claire freelanced for a year on projects that were just as varied, including social media content for a friend’s advertising company and a low-budget music video. She even designed sets for a wildly popular TikTok illusionist named Zach King, who has more than 76 million followers. (“It was interesting to design for that vertical space,” says Claire.)

The design bug hit Claire early. Growing up, she would always help her mom decorate the house for the holidays—or whenever her mom felt like changing a room, which was often. Ironically, Claire has a harder time decorating her own spaces. “I am so indecisive when it comes to that,” she admits. It’s one of the reasons she enjoys being a set decorator, though. As she explains, “It gives me the opportunity to explore so many different design styles and never have to commit to anything.”

As a teen, Claire also loved writing short stories, and she counts her senior-year creative writing class with Dr. Nancy Hunt as a highlight of her time at Santa Catalina. She explains: “It was so much more fun than even my creative writing classes in college. The class just gave me a lot of creative freedom, and Dr. Hunt was always so supportive and so excited to hear what we wrote.” One assignment in particular would hint at Claire’s current calling. “There was one exercise we did that was telling the story of a character through a setting, through their belongings in their home. I think about that story a lot—and I still, to this day, want to design a set based around the character that I created.”

The environment at Santa Catalina was so empowering. ... It was so beneficial to have grown up in a place that reminded me that I could really do anything I set my mind to.

Writing wasn’t Claire’s only creative outlet, and she credits Catalina with exposing her to additional avenues of storytelling through drama classes, dance, and theatre. “When I took drama class with Mr. [Roger] Thompson my freshman year, I was fascinated to learn about the ways a stage setting, makeup, costumes, and lighting could all play a role in telling the story, and I got to experience that a bit more firsthand when I was in tech at Catalina,” says Claire, who also appeared in the ensemble of two musicals. “I think from then on, I realized that I wanted to combine my love for visual aesthetics and storytelling, and I found that film was the perfect avenue to do so.”

Claire attended Chapman University, where she earned a bachelor of fine arts in television writing and production and production design for film. As she discovered over time that screenwriting was not for her, she has found her happy place in set decoration, where the work is always changing and creative opportunities abound. She plans to stick with BuzzFeed for a while but would love to work on a TV show someday, or even on more music videos.

Regardless of where she ends up, she can draw on her all-girls Catalina experience to help her thrive in an often tough industry. Claire says, “Catalina was honestly one of the best environments for me to grow up in. I felt so safe to explore who I was and what I was passionate about while I was surrounded by other girls, as well as teachers that encouraged us to do so. The environment at Catalina was so empowering. … [It was] so beneficial to have grown up in a place that reminded me that I could really do anything I set my mind to.

“Film can be a very misogynistic industry to work in, and that was apparent to me from the start. Women’s talents and skills are often overlooked or looked down on, and it can be so discouraging and frustrating. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve felt dismissed and mistreated by men in my career, but I’m so thankful that I was able to feel confident as a woman at such a young age because of Catalina, and I know it set me up for success today.”