Lester Calleja

My name is Lester Calleja, a Toronto-based video editor with 10+ years of professional experience in a variety of genres for broadcast television. I am a natural creative, and can edit formatted shows, short form, social, documentary, trailers and more.

I am well-versed in both Mac-based and PC-based ecosystems. I am heavily experienced working with Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Media Encoder, and After Effects. I have experience with sound design using Pro Tools. I can work remotely.

For the last 7 years, I was the in-house Development Video Editor at Nikki Ray Media Agency, a dream job. I spent much of my time in an open sandbox-like creative space, crafting highly polished trailers for shows like House of Ali (currently airing on Hulu) for broadcast, corporate functions, and presentations. I've created well over 500+ pieces, including internal sizzle and character reels for successful TV pitches, most recently, proof-of-concept reels for Comfort Food Kitchen, character reels for In With the Old: Minden's Mystery House, and a few yet-to-be-announced projects. In this role, I ingested and self-managed my material within the server. I collaborated directly with Directors and Producers to fine tune edits to create conceptual tonal pieces which were often used as a creative blueprint to build entire shows off of. My proudest creative contribution was for Extreme Ice Machines - a showcase of heavy vehicles operating in extreme cold - where the variety of vehicles, scale and masculine tone of my concept reel was reflected in the finished show to great effect. I have eagerly supported showrunners on HGTV Canada's Home to Win and Firemasters. I have cut episodes for Shut it off ASAP!, a Youtube Original with 2.5 million views and have created digital content for a variety of shows on Nikki Ray's roster. For 3 years, I successfully maintained the high standards of CTV News and Newschannel at Bell Media, delivering News edits with incredibly tight turnarounds making me no stranger to fast-paced, collaborative working environments.

Outside of work, I am married and father to a 2 year old girl. When I'm not tinkering, I love playing video games (Zelda!), watching shows, films, and I am also a dedicated martial artist, having trained in Traditional Wing Chun for 5 years. I thrive on challenges and immerse myself in work that pushes my limits.