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Nierodha Perera: The Content Queen
Interview & Words Phadria Prendergast
One of London’s hottest female videographers whose most recent work include working for two of the most sought after restaurants in London; Sexy Fish & Ivy Asia, located in Mayfair, Berkeley Square and St Paul’s, London, Nierodha Perera speaks with me about female videographers, building her all female agency Creative Queens, the importance of your network and how Instagram has landed her numerous opportunities.
It’s a Wednesday afternoon, just after 1:30pm. I sit down around my dining table - which since the Coronavirus hit pandemic levels, has also become my work desk. I can’t complain, I have
a great view. I’m waiting to speak with Nierodha Perera, London’s very own content queen. I receive a notification that Nierodha has joined the meeting room. I do a lip gloss check as Zoom loads. We share our pleasantries. She compliments me. I do the same. Usually I don’t like to return compliments right after receiving one because I think it comes across as just that – a returned compliment, but she was gorgeous. Nierodha came as a recommendation through an old friend who is an artist in the industry. The established videographer has over 7 years of experience working for the likes of House of CB’s founder and former WOTC cover girl, Conna Walker and rising British artist Mabel, who she joined on her first headline show. On the brands side of the industry, Nierodha has worked for fashion giant ASOS and headed projects with leading sports fashion retailers JD Sports, New Balance and Nike.
In London, there aren’t many female videographers that come to mind when you think of the best. Nierodha quickly learnt this when searching for other videographers - who were women, that she wanted to assist her with projects she was working on. “When I was working at ASOS especially, they encouraged you a lot to bring in your own team, but I was like, who can be on the set and do that? The list was very short for me.” She comments on the importance of finding your niche and it not being about being the jack of all trades. “I didn’t just fall into it, it’s more like trying to figure out what I’m genuinely good at. So even with videography, it was only after university when I struggled to find a job, that I saved up for all my equipment.”
She had studied media and communications and laughed as she recalled her family’s reaction upon her graduating. In short, they wanted to know what she was going to do next. By the time she had applied for every single production house she could think of – the ITV’s, the Channel 4’s, she had received numerous nos. Nierodha was resolute, nonetheless. She had made up her mind that these production houses would someday want to work with her. I admired her tenacity.
The conversation with Nierodha was the kind I loved most. It was like catching up with an old friend. She thought she was waffling on but for me, it was perfect for delivering the right story. One I knew our WOTC readers wanted to read.
Instagram is where it all really began for Nierodha and has continued to play a pivotal role in her career. For her first year and a half, she worked for free; from shooting for a London based girl group called Squeeze back in 2013, to interviewing sales advisors and store managers in BOXPARK, Shoreditch. She would capture how they started out and post the content on her Instagram page. Initially, she didn’t post with the intention of building a clientele, until one day, a follower enquired about her rate. ‘I was like, what’s my rate?” she laughed. A rookie at the time, she hadn’t thought about things like travel costs and overall efforts of delivering the project – all important aspects that decided what the final rate would be. She however, charged the minimum.
As far as heartbreaks go, we have seen our favourite artists capitalise from the experience countless times. Nierodha tapped into a new skill that allowed her to do the very same after a bad break up. I know we’ve all been there, hours and hours spent listening to music. That one song on repeat, completely in our feelings as we reminisced or tried to forget. Nierodha however, turned her heartbreak into creativity and began making visual effects for songs that only had artwork but no official video. For the 29-year-old videographer who was 23 at the time, it was just a wave of creativity and true to being the content queen, she of course posted on her Instagram. Her followers soon began to enquire. “People were messaging me like ‘oh how much is it for something like this’.”
Her introduction to the music video side of things was through video director, Luke Biggins who has been in the game for several years. Nierodha was brought in as a production manager or assistant which is where opportunities to work for some of the biggest names in the UK music scene such as Stormzy, Fekky, Stefflon Don, and Donaeo came from. She humbly shares how at the time; she was unable to afford her own camera, nor could she afford to hire one. “He (referring to Luke Biggins) literally put petrol in my car, to go to his house to collect his camera that I could borrow for that week. I’ll never forget people like him.” You can hear the utmost gratitude in her voice. “You’ve got those moments where you really do need to rely on and go and seek help from your peers. I think that’s really important.” Nierodha stresses the importance of having a network and relationship building. For her, alongside Instagram which has been a key tool for providing opportunities for her over the course of her career, many of them also came through her connections.
Nierodha believes there’s a formula when it comes to social media and content. It’s about quality over quantity. It’s about consistency. It’s simply about having the content posted and out there. When she began her position at ASOS after working four years as a freelancer, it wasn’t one she had actually applied for. She had been contacted through Instagram by a manager who had come across her profile. Most recently, she has begun using the platform to reach individuals who would like to enter the world of videography by giving them tips on content and how to brand themselves through 1-1 consultations. If you’re an aspiring creative, Nierodha is offering her time to provide any advice or just a conversation for inspiration.
When she’s not shooting people, she’s shooting food. Nierodha’s food page ‘wearethefoodwhores’ which she co-founded with a friend three years ago when they shared the same medium - the love for food, is the ultimate dream if you’re a foodie. “We just wanted to go out and eat and then we would eat for free, so we’d take pictures and videos or write reviews and put it out there.” From there, the duo went on to collaborate with Sainsbury’s, Street Feast and Wagamama who saw the content they had produced and had approached them. “That was a passion project, but then we ended up getting paid from it through the restaurants that wanted content for their brands.”
I rounded up our chat by asking the Sri Lankan beauty who was on her Wishlist. Beyoncé was top of the list. She had said it as though she was unsure if it was a dream that was aimed too high. I reassured her that it was exactly how it should be. “I would love to just be on set,” she stated. She just wanted to learn. She wanted to take notes. She just wanted to be around. British television presenter, Maya Jama, is also on her list. Nierodha was the second person I had interviewed that week to list Maya there. Ms Banks, one of the notable names in the female rap scene in the UK, also makes it onto her list. “I would always want to work with artists,” she says. “I feel like with talent and artists, it’s not always the glitz and the glamour, it’s genuinely a day in the life of being in the studio and how much time it takes to do that. When I’ve been on tour with Mabel, it’s crazy, but crazy in a good way. Like when we did meet and greets with fans, how many fans really cry and how much impact these people have on others is mad. It’s crazy to see.”