Game of Thrones sound designer, NSCAD University alum, wins Emmy

It's not the Iron Throne, but it's pretty close.

A Nova Scotian has won an Emmy for her work on the HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones.

Paula Fairfield, a self-described "sound hoarder," creates the dragon roars and the sounds other imaginary creatures make on the show. She grew up in Bridgewater and went to NSCAD University.

Fairfield said in an interview earlier this summer thatshe doesn't use synthesizers for her work, instead she mixes "real found sound."

"I always say my job is to bring people to the threshold of believability," she told CBC's Mainstreet from her home in Los Angeles last July.

"If you have something on screen that's already not real, you have to find some way to ground it in something real so we as a viewer can relate to it."

Fairfield wonfor outstanding sound editing for a series last weekend, for the Season 5 episode Hardhome.The pivotal fight scene includes moments with the mythical race of White Walkers. Fairfield oversees their sounds.

"They're just so cold they freeze everything around them," she said. "Sometimes sound design is about removing sound, not adding."

For the young dragons on the show, Fairfield combined 10 different animal sounds. As they aged, she added more.

The nomination was Fairfield's third Emmy nod for her work on Game of Thrones and her seventh overall. This was her first win.The show garnered 24 Emmy nominations this year more than any other TV show this year.