Interview: Emmy-Nominated Stunt Coordinators Declan Mulvey and Nitasha Bhambree on Breaking Barriers with ‘FBI: Most Wanted’

The Oscars may have made headlines earlier this year when they announced that they are adding a new category for stunt coordination, but the TV Academy can proudly boast that it has been handing out the award since 2002. Still, history has been made yet again in 2025, with the nomination of FBI: Most Wanted stunt coordinator Nitasha Bhambree, the first woman of color ever recognized in a stunt coordination category.

“There weren’t a lot of actresses of my type who I could double when I started,” says Bhambree. “But I was determined to give it my all, so I spent years training and learning everything I could to become a valuable part of the stunt community.”

Shifts in onscreen diversity have therefore made room for the deserved ascension of industry talents like Bhambree, who designed the stunts for the hit CBS series alongside her husband Declan Mulvey. In case the duo’s nomination was not historic enough, Bhambree and Mulvey are only the second married couple to be nominated in their category, Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Drama Programming.

“This career is all-consuming, and to be able to come home to someone who understands the demands of the job is invaluable,” says Mulvey, who also points out that “two heads are better than one.”

That is especially true on a show like FBI: Most Wanted, where the scripts often allow for a certain flexibility in the stunt department. Action sequences tend to evolve considerably from script to screen. One such example came in the series finale “The Circle Game,” in which a domestic terrorist cuts the power to a busy NYC intersection.

“Given that it was our final episode, the producers and all involved wanted as much mayhem as possible,” explain Bhambree and Mulvey. “What started as a fender bender between two cars became a full-on T-bone, and then our line producer, Paul Cabbad, offered, ‘Can you get a third car in that crash?’ to which there is only ever one answer: ‘Yes!’ And that’s how it evolved into the three-bone car crash that closes out our Emmy reel.”

It is only natural that reel translated into a nomination, marking the third of Mulvey’s career. You can check out the power couple’s work on projects of varying scales, including the Oscar-nominated Past Lives, and the forthcoming If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, starring Rose Byrne and Conan O’Brien.

Check out our full conversation with Nitasha Bhambree and Declan Mulvey below!

Nitasha, you’ve just made history as the first woman of color ever nominated for stunt coordination at the Emmys. How does that milestone resonate with you, and what do you think it means for other women and people of color in the stunt community?

When I first began pursuing stunt work, I didn’t know if I would be able to make a career of it as a woman of color, so to now be nominated for a stunt-coordinating Emmy is both thrilling and humbling.

There weren’t a lot of actresses of my type who I could double when I started. But I was determined to give it my all, so I spent years training and learning everything I could to become a valuable part of the stunt community. Eventually, I got my first stunt job from Steve Pope. It wasn’t to double an actress but to play a non-descript role. He built a stunt team that reflected the diversity of the real world, and I was lucky to be a part of that. I continued working on advancing my skillset, which led to my first big car stunts thanks to Cort Hessler taking a chance on me.

The business has become incredibly diverse, both in front of and behind the camera. Now more than ever, anyone who has something to give to stunts, regardless of type, can find or create opportunities. 

You are only the second married team in Emmy history to be nominated for stunt coordination in the drama category. What’s it like to share such a demanding and now history-making role with your partner?

We wouldn’t have it any other way. Day to day, the role of the stunt coordinator requires juggling a lot of varied responsibilities, and two heads are better than one. Especially on a network TV series, the schedule is so tight, and you are always shooting one episode while prepping the next, and there may be additional units, rehearsals, or location scouts. All of these may require the presence of the stunt coordinator. And since we are in constant contact already and share the same point of view on how to approach the work, it makes co-coordinating seamless for us. Most importantly, this career is all-consuming, and to be able to come home to someone who understands the demands of the job is invaluable.

FBI: Most Wanted consistently delivers gritty, high-stakes action with real emotional weight. What was your biggest creative challenge this season in designing stunts that pushed boundaries while staying true to the story?

The biggest challenge with doing twenty-two episodes is keeping it fresh. It would be easy to repeat the same reliable gags, but the writers and directors all try very hard to do something different each episode, and we want each new case to inspire unique action. In episode 609 “Moving On,” we have a man who was the victim of a fire-bombing and now seeks revenge using similar highly flammable explosives. In the opening, we recreated this type of attack on one innocent victim to show the horror of it — a mail carrier is firebombed in her mail truck. This stunt is nominated for Outstanding Stunt Performance this year. At the end of the episode, we recreated the fire-bombing of a home. All of the action in the episode was very specific to the story and consistent with the themes of the episode.

The action on FBI: Most Wanted often feels very grounded and tactical. How do you strike a balance between realism and visual excitement when designing chase scenes, shootouts, or hand-to-hand fights?

It’s a constant balance of coming up with crowd-pleasing action but also finding a way into it that is justified narratively. We audition a lot of ideas for every action scene. We will put every option on the table and then filter out what might be a deal-breaker for the reality of our show with the help of our FBI Technical Advisor, Mike Matera. Thanks to the internet, we can see things happen every day in real life that are quite unbelievable. Cars do tumble through the air, and people do have knock-down, drag-out fights in unusual places. So anything can be believable as long as we protect the integrity of the characters. Our cast always did a great job of selling the danger of the action. In turn, we tried to make sure they never became superheroes.

Can you share a specific example from this past season where a stunt sequence evolved significantly from script to screen?

In the final episode of the season 622, “The Circle Game,” we had a domestic terrorist attacking power grids. In the climax, the villains kill the power to a busy intersection. It was written flexibly because such a scene is quite demanding to film in New York City. You can never be sure what will be allowed. But given that it was our final episode, the producers and all involved wanted as much mayhem as possible. What started as a fender bender between two cars became a full-on T-bone, and then our Line Producer, Paul Cabbad, offered, “Can you get a third car in that crash?” To which there is only ever one answer: “Yes!” And that’s how it evolved into the three-bone car crash that closes out our Emmy reel.

Looking back over the season, is there a single stunt sequence you’re most proud of and why?

It would have to be the fire burn from episode 609 “Moving On,” also nominated for Outstanding Stunt Performance this year. Frank Alfano, our key fire stunt rigger, Eric Jolly, our SFX coordinator, and the rest of our stunt and SFX teams worked very hard to push the size of the fire to its absolute limits while keeping the stunt double, Evelyn Vaccaro, safe. Evelyn is an experienced free diver who has been performing fire stunts regularly, so she was uniquely prepared to do a boundary-pushing fire burn. We tested the SFX explosion as well as the fire burn prep on Evelyn to make sure everything was safely maxed out. It worked beautifully, and we got an impressive stunt with no collateral damage. We even got a stunt actor, Alex Huynh, involved with minimal protection to perform along with Evelyn and give the whole thing a greater sense of humanity and scale.