Paula Fairfield is a Canadian sound designer and sound artist, based in Southern California. She is best known for her work on the series Game of Thrones. She has a BAFTA Award for House of the Dragon (won 2023); and a total of thirteen Emmy nominations, one for Rings of Power, one for House of the Dragon, six for Game of Thrones (won in 2015 and 2019), three for Lost, one for The River, and one for the series Lovecraft Country (won 2021). In May 2021, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from her alma mater, NSCAD University. She also has 5 golden reel awards and 18 nominations for her work from the Motion Picture Sound Editors guild.
Life in Canada
Fairfield was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1961 and grew up in a nearby town called Bridgewater. She attended college at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (NSCAD) in the early 1980s studying art history and photography. After graduating with a BFA, she moved to Montreal for two years where she worked as an artist and did a training program at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)'s Studio D. Fairfield then moved to Toronto where she co-managed Charles Street Video, a non-profit centre run by artists. Her video and film art was exhibited all over the world and resides in several collections including the National Gallery of Canada.
Fairfield worked at SoundDogs, the Toronto-based post production sound company. She said, "I just wandered in one day and they had just lost their effects guy and they took a chance on me. I had a lot to learn, but I loved it." This is where she learned how to edit sound and sound design for television and film.
Life in the United States
Fairfield moved to Los Angeles in 1998.
She established her company, Eargasm, Inc, in 2014. She has a studio in her home — a sealed garage with highly insulated walls. The studio is set up for Dolby Atmos and uses PMC monitors and an Avid Pro Tools S6 console. She left Los Angeles for the Coachella Valley after a divorce from her wife and losing her brother, sister and father to cancer. According to The Desert Sun , "the desert’s spirituality and solitude keep her centered as an artist. After an intense day of sound editing, she simply steps out of her studio and into her home space, a quiet desert sanctuary she describes as 'Bliss.'"
Awards and nominations
BAFTA Winner for Best Sound: Fiction, House of the Dragon, 2023
Emmy Winner for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Lovecraft Country, 2020
Emmy Winner for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Game of Thrones, 2019
Emmy Nominee for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour) - Game of Thrones, 2018 Emmy Nominee for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Game of Thrones: Nominee 2013, 2014, 2016, Lost: Nominee 2007, 2008, 2010 Emmy Winner for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Game of Thrones, 2015 Emmy Nominee Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special, The River, 2012 Winner Gemini Award for Best Sound in a Dramatic Program or Series, 1996 Nominee of Gemini Award for Best Sound Editing, 1996 and 1999 5 MPSE Golden Reel wins and 14 MPSE Golden Reel Nominations In 1996, she was recognized in "Who's Who in Canadian Film and Television"