BREAKING
BACKSTORY: The classic film lover and TV host who’s as ready
with a GIF as she is with an anecdote
FROM: Queens, New York
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: Film Twitter—especially
#TCMparty and #ThisLooksFilmiliar
NOW: TCM’s first female host (also first non-white host, also
youngest host, also third host hire since the channel began
airing in 1994)
T I F FA N Y
VA Z Q U E Z
AS
I
WATCHED
TIFFANY
VAZQUEZ’S FIRST APPEARANCE
and Bringing Up Baby.” And her idea of
on Turner Classic Movies, I couldn’t help
connective: “I like to go by theme, so
thinking of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate
The Night of the Hunter and Do the Right
Factory. Because prior to finding her
Thing is what springs immediately to
golden ticket, Vazquez, like Charlie, had
mind. I love the similarities between
little more than a hope and a dream.
the two—the ‘Love/Hate’ tattoos on
“TCM is what I wanted. But I had no
the preacher’s knuckles and the ‘Love/
idea how to go about getting that job,”
Hate’ rings on Radio Raheem’s. I like how
she says. So she did like the old man
completely different the two movies are,
instructed and she got a job—in tech,
although the theme of perseverance is
at GIF search engine GIPHY. But then
strong within both.”
TCM held a contest, and Vazquez took
home the prize. And with that, the dream
Vazquez is talking movies, but that
became real.
would have to be the case for any TCM
Vazquez is still on staff as an editor
host. What really makes her stand out is
at GIPHY, where she specializes in film
the way that her interests extend beyond
GIFs, but she now also flies to Atlanta
the medium itself. When she watches
once a quarter to film three months’
Cary Grant diffidently drop his head,
worth of movie introductions over the
or hears Mae West deliver a one-liner,
course of three very intense workdays—
or sees Buster Keaton blithely evade
complete with costume changes, script
certain death, she also sees Internet
rewrites, pronunciation tutorials (she
gold. “Buster Keaton is made for GIFs.
cites “Cukor” and “Kazan” as names that
Not to downplay Buster Keaton—he’s a
inspire an endless variety of errors), and
genius—but I don’t think it’s an insult to
a seemingly boundless store of energy.
say that what he does so well in his films
She acknowledges how taxing it can be,
also makes him immensely useful in GIF
but that’s the job, and she clearly loves it.
form as well.”
“I’ve never watched a film on
12
FLOOD
The past is always present when
When I ask her what’s next for her
TCM and been like, ‘Ugh, I wish I hadn’t
career, she seems sincerely baffled. “I
seen that.’ There’s always something
can’t say I’ve taken the time to think of
to be learned,” she says. Those are the
that. A lot has happened in the last year.”
words of a true believer, but it’s hard to
avoid being taken in by her enthusiasm.
Atlanta or GIFfing in New York, Vazquez
Predictably, Vazquez’s cinephilia isn’t
is on Twitter, and she might do well to
confined to the studio era, or black-and-
borrow the advice she recently gave to
whites, or even the idea of “classic films”
an overwhelmed TCM fanatic: namely,
at all. As she puts it, “I’m as impressed
clone herself.
by how influential these classic films are
as I am by their quality. It’s amazing that
“there’s a lot to look forward to.” With
so many rom-com plots and jokes can
Vazquez’s hiring at TCM, their catalog—
be traced back to It Happened One Night
and conception—of classic films will
OF TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES
BY DANIEL HARMON
the perfect double feature is similarly
PHOTO COURTESY OF TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES
Truly. When she’s not filming in
But in the meantime, she says,
continue to grow. And that’s something
that we can all look forward to.