Editor – Payton Koch
For Avatar: The Last Airbender editor Payton Koch, this job offered a very different kind of editorial challenge from his Emmy-nominated work on Only Murders in the Building. The series has to move between large-scale action, visual effects, martial arts, comedy, mythology and coming-of-age drama, often within the same sequence. It also has to satisfy a fanbase that knows this world extremely well while still making the story accessible to viewers coming to it for the first time.
Based on the Nickelodeon series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a world divided into four nations — Water, Earth, Fire and Air — where certain people can “bend,” or control, one of those elements. At the center of the story is Aang, the last surviving Air Nomad and the next Avatar, the one person capable of mastering all four elements and restoring balance to a world at war.
Season Two takes Aang, Katara and Sokka deeper into the Earth Kingdom as they search for an earthbending teacher and make their way toward Ba Sing Se, the massive, heavily fortified capital of the Earth Kingdom. Along the way, the series expands its world with new allies, new enemies and a larger sense of the political and emotional cost of the Fire Nation’s war.
PAYTON KOCH
Payton Koch is an Emmy-nominated picture editor with a diverse range of post-production credits on popular television series, including American Horror Story, Ratched and Only Murders in the Building. His work on the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building earned him multiple ACE Eddie Award nominations, as well as his first Primetime Emmy nomination in 2024.
His additional credits include American Crime Story, The Politician, Home Before Dark, Just Beyond and The Boys in the Band.
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