PR executive Julie Miller said that she began her career “as far away from Hollywood as possible.” A Dartmouth graduate with a master’s degree in writing, Miller decided in 1995 that she wanted to be a librarian but instead went to work at Avid Technology, a digital editing software company in Tewksbury, Mass., that also makes library automation technology.

While handling marketing and PR duties at Avid, she realized that the industry was shifting from film to digital. “I got hooked on what was happening in the film and TV industry with technology, and I never looked back,” she said.

After five years at Avid, the young writer said that she moved to Los Angeles “to be closer to the action.” The Hudson, Mass., native made the drive with her boyfriend, Tony Caccierelli, arriving New Year’s Day 2001. She continued working for Avid while also doing PR consulting for other companies such as Venice’s Digital Domain, a video effects shop where she became an in-house PR rep in 2007.

This January, Miller joined Santa Monica agency Raz PR as managing director. In her new position she will develop marketing and PR strategies for the firm’s clients such as Autodesk, which develops 2-D and 3-D animation software, and Nvidia, a developer of graphics processing technology.

One of Miller’s favorite parts of her job is bringing the techies from the darkroom to the conference room.

“In my many years in the industry, I have done a lot of work where I have been placing digital effects artists in speaking roles in conferences,” she said. “These people spend their lives in darkrooms, so hearing how they work, what their creative process is, sheds a whole new light on the filmmaking process.”

Like her clients, Miller sees herself as a storyteller. “What made my background in being a writer important is that it’s difficult to articulate what good technology can do for storytelling,” she said. “I enjoy giving somebody a voice who’s sitting in a darkroom and helping bring their story to life.”

Miller, 42, lives in the Redondo Beach area with Caccierelli, now her husband, who works in the technology industry.

“We spend our weekends talking about things like 2-D to 3-D conversion. It’s pretty scary,” she said.