Here is the tl;dr on me:
I’m a full stack developer and artist from Venice Beach, California. I have a MFA in animation from UCLA and I’m a contributor to the WordPress Open Source Project.
Here is the long version:
amykamala as a WordPresser and dev:
Since 2015 I have dedicated myself to empowering WordPress users around the globe understand and feel confident in working with their WordPress websites. I’ve resolved over 45,000 website errors and have worked on thousands of websites. Not just WordPress but I’ve also worked with Symfony, Laravel, Drupal and a variety of other frameworks and CMSs. WordPress is my main gig though!
Starting in 2015 I was technical support agent for five years at DreamHost, where I was steadily rated as the #1 agent for quality by customer feedback on an ongoing basis. Clearly I’m a badass at customer and technical support. 😎 I ultimately became a point of escalation for other tech support agents and helped lead the WordPress Support team at DreamHost. In 2018 I spearheaded the creation and implementation of a new developer service at DreamHost LLC called DreamCare. As acting Technical Product Manager of DreamCare, I spent over a year designing a collection of WordPress focused professional service packages (such as optimization, SEO and so forth) geared specifically to enable website owners more access to the help they need to accomplish their online business and personal goals. DreamCare made a five figure profit in beta, and my care packages were rolled out with it’s product launch after I left.
In 2018 I started contributing to the WordPress.org hosting team; helping organize and lead team meetings and WordPress.org blog posts and in 2019 I became a team rep. I started speaking at WordCamps, a WordPress-specific tech conference. My first talk was at WordCamp Las Vegas in September 2019 and I’ve since spoken at, helped with contributor Days, helped organize and been involved with a number of camps including WCEU 2023, WCASIA 2026, WCUS contributor days yearly, WP Santa Clarita 2019, and WCLA 2019. I became a Meetups organizer for WPLA in 2019.
In 2020 I started contributing to the WordPress Core team by leading release model working group meetings. In 2020 I also became a Web Development Manager for InMotion Hosting, responsible for a team of five developers and 3 designers, and over 23 public facing online corporate assets as well as the associated devops pipelines (GitLab), and project management (Jira). I was selected to be part of the all woman release squad for WordPress 5.6 and continued contributing to WordPress. From there I was recruited by the web host Pantheon as a solutions architect, then moved on to work as a web developer for LA County and later for a small tech company called Swooshtech. I took a hiatus from contributing in 2024 and returned in 2025 sponsored by Elementor. 2026 marks my 6th non-consecutive year as a Hosting Team rep for the WordPress Open Source Project, and my first year as a Core team rep! I was a Release Coordinator for WordPress 6.9 and 7.0 and my love for WordPress only grows.
Feel free to check out my WordPress.org profile, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Amy as an artist:
I have a BFA from OTIS College of Art and Design where I focused on sculpture and video art, and later got my MFA in Animation from UCLA. I’ve shown artwork in galleries, museums and film screenings all over Southern California and the USA. My last showing was in May 2019, showing a collection of R2D2 fan art in the “Little Art Show” at the ROK cafe. You can check these on my Instagram. My IMDB page is found here, but unfortunately it’s missing over a dozen film and tv projects that I have contributed to.
Specializing in mixed media and multimedia, I make traditional-digital hybrid artwork and films that speak of damaged innocence, child-like wonder, deep emotional turmoil, and the beauty of emotional tenderness. My digital-drawing hybrid work confesses a child-like vulnerability with a strikingly dark edge that touches on issues of love, loss and loneliness. Through drawing, photography and animation, I express hope, curiosity and playfulness. My art work is personal and auto-biographical, emotional and complex.
amy’s biography:
Born and raised in Venice Beach, California to a musical and artistic family, I was heavily influenced by my artist father, wildly encouraging mother and the colorful Venice culture of arts and crafts at a young age. As a youth, I was in a traveling theatre group, was 2nd chair violin and was in the school choir for 6 years. Here is my secret SoundCloud with some music I’ve worked on.
Encouraged to explore my creative expression from day 1, I began my formal studies in fine arts as a child at art school Mission Renaissance. My fine arts studies continued throughout high school as I took AP art and photography classes, and attended OTIS College’s Summer of Art program where I studied traditional art and photography.
I then attended OTIS College of Art and Design as an undergraduate student, where I earned my BFA in 2004. While at OTIS, I explored sculpture, digital media and video and developed an interest in animation driven by a strong desire to make my drawings move. After graduating from OTIS I went on to work in animation, landing a job at prestigious Klasky Csupo as a background artist and digital ink and painter. Thereafter I worked in film post-production at Fotokem just before I started at UCLA for graduate school. During my graduate school years, I worked in for medical offices, as a budtender at hash bars, did graphic design and taught art at UCLA and private art schools. I delved far into Animation at UCLA in the Department of Film and Television’s Animation Workshop, where I earned my MFA in Animation in 2014. I worked heavily with flash, if you remember that software, which was half animation half coding.
In 2015 I added another dimension to my skills set by pursuing a career in technology, working as a support technician for the web host DreamHost LLC. After almost 5 years of working for DreamHost LLC I developed a speciality working with WordPress and have thus helped tens of thousand of people with their websites. In 2018 I helped create and implement DreamHost’s developer service called DreamCare. As acting Technical Product Manager of DreamCare, I spent over a year designing a collection of WordPress focused professional service packages (such as optimization, SEO, security and so forth) geared specifically to enable website owners more access to the help they need to accomplish their online business and personal goals.
In 2018 I joined WordPress.org and have been contributing ever since to the Hosting and Core teams. In 2025 I started being sponsored by Elementor to contribute to WordPress, became a release coordinator for Core and in 2026 continued contributing as a team rep for both Core and Hosting teams as a team rep.
To top it off I’m mom of two and I’m always on the grind.
PHEW! There is only more good news to come of this story! I’ll keep you posted!
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