Dr. Layla Cameron (they/them) is an academic, filmmaker and journalist living on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), and Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ) Nations.

Layla is a Lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, and an incoming Lecturer in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan. Their research interests are grounded in queer feminist cultural studies, and they have published and presented work in the disciplines of communication and media studies, women and gender studies, fat studies, disability studies and the sociology of sport. Such work includes contributions in Intersectional Media (2021, Eds. J. Campbell & T. Carilli), Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, BIG: Stories About Life in Plus-Sized Bodies (2020, Ed. Christina Myers), and Xtra.

Layla has taught undergraduate courses on topics such as new information technologies, introduction to communications, technologies of gender and sexuality, documentary media, popular culture, and video and sound production. In addition to their PhD, they hold a Master of Arts from the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, and a Bachelors of Journalism and Human Rights (High Honours) from Carleton University.

In October 2018, Layla’s body of work was awarded the Nora & Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy. Layla’s first short documentary film, Fat Hiking Club, has screened at festivals, conferences, and in classrooms around the world. They are currently working on a second documentary film, Baby Weight, with the BC & Yukon Studio of the National Film Board of Canada, and developing another film project, My Girl Gail. Layla also directs and produces the fatten podcast, supported by Telus STORYHIVE’s Voices Program. The first season of the podcast was released in September 2022, and the second season is scheduled to premiere in October 2023.

Outside of academia and filmmaking, Layla runs a fat-positive letterpress print shop called Stay Fat Design Co.