Cristina “Trinity” Vélez-Justo

Cristina “Trinity” Vélez-Justo (she/they) is a public speaker and educator, and an award-winning composer for film and media through her business ReelScoring, LLC. She relocated to Charlotte, NC, from Los Angeles in 2018 after finishing the Television Academy Foundation Internship in Music and working as an assistant to accomplished film and television composers who score(d) Star Trek Discovery, The Possession, Reelform’s Siren, and the Kit-Kat jingle. Through film festivals and academic institutions (including UNC School of the Arts as an instructor in the MFA Film Music Composition program), Trinity educates media-makers on the psychology and significance of music in media and how to successfully work with a composer. She also speaks internationally about networking in a disconnected world, and diversity and inclusion in the industry and creative classroom.

Before moving to Ohio, Trinity was an active member of the Charlotte film community — she was featured as “A Woman To Watch” by SouthPark Magazine in 2012 and nominated and selected as a 2019 and 2021 Featured Artist through ArtSí, an organization that supports Latinx creatives. She is an avid educator in cultivating strong and healthy professional relationships — leading workshops in networking and career development for creatives. Trinity is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Music Theory & Cognition at The Ohio State University, incorporating media studies, sociology, psychology, and critical race theory in her research. Her research focuses on how music influences our perceptions of marginalized (specifically Black and Brown) groups by its use in visual media. Trinity plans to implement her research into developing more diverse and inclusive approaches in teaching music for media, and to help both privileged and marginalized students create a more equitable future in the entertainment and music industries.