Personal details
- Professions: Production Designer, Actress, Art Department
Stephonika’s story kicks off in a tiny West Virginia town—one of those spots where everybody knows your name and probably your bad hair days too. She hustled her way through Ohio University, snagging her bachelor’s degree cum laude back in 2011. Not exactly a small feat, right? After that, she wasn’t about to settle for just any old job. Nope. She dove headfirst into the world of production design and set decoration, making her mark not just in Ohio but all over the damn country. Since 2014, she’s been rolling with IATSE Local 209, which, if you know anything about film crews, means she’s pretty legit. But here’s the thing: she’s not just that person making movie sets look cool. She writes. She directs. She acts. Honestly, it’s like she cracked the code on being a creative Swiss Army knife. Her big break? That happened when she landed set decorator on the Wrong Turn reboot in 2021. She credits that gig for opening a ton of doors, and honestly, you can see why. Major movie cred, right there. But wait, there’s more. She’s got mad skills as a self-taught artist, making props and crafts that people actually want to buy. She even set up her own little shop, Onika Arts & Oddities, over on Etsy. Basically, whether she’s behind the scenes or running her own business, Stephonika’s just out there crushing it—one project at a time.
Her middle initial is “W” and, yeah, it actually stands for “Wayne.” Kinda wild, right? Not your everyday name-choice story. Turns out, she was named after her uncle, Timothy Wayne Barnes, who tragically passed away at just three months old. The family wanted to honor his memory, so they made “Wayne” part of her name. It’s one of those little things you’d never guess from just looking at her name in the credits, but there’s this bittersweet story behind it. Makes you wonder how many people are carrying around secret tributes in their names, right? This little detail doesn’t come up in interviews much, but it says a lot about how much family means to her. People remember their loved ones in all kinds of ways, and this one’s subtle but super meaningful. It’s a nod to someone gone too soon—pretty touching, honestly.
Konidela Ram Charan