DIRECTOR

I was asked to create the opening film to kickoff NBCUniversal’s One22 developer conference (held at the famed SNL studio 8H at 30 Rock). The film was designed to promote NBCU’s tech-forward advertising model by poking gentle, metaphorical fun at the antiquated Nielsen ratings system. Hence, “Meet Neil.” And oh boy, did the stars align on this one. Despite the ambitious timeline and production schedule, it was a ridiculously collaborative experience from start to finish, and we’re all immensely proud of the finished work.

Starring Craig Cox and Echo Kellum.

Agency: NBCU Creative Partnerships

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

Al Roker is an American icon, an absolute gentleman, and a shockingly capable actor — as I found out directing him in this Clio Bronze award winning promo for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. We worked hand in hand with our partners at Sony Pictures to put Al inside the world of the blockbuster movie.

Have a look at this segment from The Today Show where Al speaks generously about the fun he had on set.

Agency: NBCU Creative Partnerships

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

I was thrilled to direct this super clever and self-aware campaign. There’s no getting around the general public’s perception of the Triscuit cracker -- that it’s simply a delivery vehicle for other, more interesting toppings.  But why not be bold, and embrace the unique flavor and texture of the nude Triscuit. It’s fun to treat this as an audacious and heretical notion, and really lean into the absurdity of this reality, where seeing a bare cracker is tantamount to a wardrobe malfunction.

Agency: VanynerMedia

DIRECTOR

I love subversive supernatural comedy — undercutting the fantastical and paranormal as if totally mundane and matter-of-fact. Suffice to say, I fell in love with these scripts from the moment I read them.

This one felt like lightning in a bottle — terrific creative from the team at Forsman, bold and trusting clients at Green River, a pitch perfect cast, a wonderfully talented crew, and a post team totally invested in making these finished pieces sing. Special shout out to Patrick Colman at Final Cut for his tireless work on the edits, and Dirk Greene at Significant Others for his yeoman’s work on the ambitious VFX!

Featured in: The Drum - Best Ads of the Week, AdAge, MSN, DavidReviews

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

We’ve all seen the movie. We've all seen the memes. But have you seen everyone’s favorite scene from “Love Actually” reenacted by Seth Meyers and his faithful cue card guy, Wally? Be sure to stick around for an extra special cameo by a fully grown Thomas Brodie Sangster!

Agency: NBCU Creative Partnerships

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

With the US Senate recently passing the Sunshine Protection Act (because they clearly have nothing more important to do), Daylight Saving is poised to become the permanent status quo pretty soon. An additional hour of sunlight? What kind of wet blanket wouldn’t be onboard with that?

Featured in: Little Black Book, AdAge

Agency: VaynerMedia

Production Services: Alfredo Films

DIRECTOR

From the Munchkins of Oz, to the Hobbits of the shire, to Willy Wonka’s Oompa Loompas, the general public seems to have an abiding affinity for miniature men going about their business in a full-sized world.  The original script for this campaign was great – an opera singer lamenting a dog’s mess on a miraculously hydrophobic carpet? Fun! But shrinking the opera singer to knee height? Now we’re playing 4D chess. Our goal was to make the most memorable, bizarrely funny, pet-proof carpet sing-a-long commercial since… well, ever.

Agency: Chemistry

DIRECTOR

It was an honor (and an absolute blast) to direct two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison in this spot, designed to premiere during the 2022 Super Bowl Pre-Game Show on NBC.

Agency: NBCU Creative Partnerships

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

Let’s be honest – doing nothing is glorious. It’s one of life’s deepest pleasures and most indulgent goals. And you know what’s even better than doing nothing? Doing nothing while chowing down on a ridiculously delicious A&W burger. That’s what.

Agency: Rethink

Production Services: Alfredo Films

DIRECTOR

Sherri Shepherd’s endearing personality, wit, and charm make her the perfect face for any brand. But considering Sherri lives with Type 2 diabetes, her work with Abbott and Freestyle Libre feels like a match made in roller skating spokesperson heaven!

Agency: VML Chicago

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

I once read that we swallow approximately eight spiders a year in our sleep. While that may or may not be true, it hasn’t stopped me from sleeping face down like a dead person. The bugxiety is real, y’all. Rebel Wilson knows exactly what I’m talkin’ about.

Agency: Citizen Relations

DIRECTOR | EDITOR

I couldn’t have been more excited to team with Huge and Latrice Royale on their Valentine’s Day campaign for Squirrel Brand Nuts’ new delicious confection, Ruby Royale.

Latrice Royale as an ambassador for Ruby Royale? Talk about serendipity. I’ve been a fan of Latrice’s for years. She’s one of the wisest, funniest, most glamorous, and endlessly endearing drag queens on the scene, and this was a match made in nut-joke heaven.

Featured in: AdAge Editor’s Pick, Webby Awards Honoree, Little Black Book, Campaign

Agency: Huge, (Ruby Royale Case Study)

DIRECTOR (live action + voice over)

Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen are the most unlikely and lovable duo in broadcasting, and I was delighted to work with them on this promo for CNN’s New Year’s Eve special. Shoutout to House Special for their terrific work on the stop-motion animation.

Agency: CNN Creative Marketing

DIRECTOR

Well now, this was a special one. Here was the ask: Create a one-off special to promote Netflix & The Obama’s new kid’s food show, “Waffles + Mochi”. The special’s gonna star some of the biggest names on the planet (Michelle Obama, Jennifer Garner, Jack Black, Samin Nosrat, Timbaland, Anya Taylor-Joy), along with Waffles + Mochi themselves and several other puppets (and puppeteers!) from the show. Oh, and nearly all of it needs to be filmed remotely because of Covid. Ready, GO!

Suffice to say this was one the craziest, most challenging, and ridiculously satisfying productions I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of. Have a look at the full special above, and a few of our star-studded segments below.

Featured on: Muse by Clio, Looper

Agency: Giant Spoon

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

A short little ditty about a man who has fifty-percent more hands than the rest of us.

Agency: No Fixed Address

Production Services: Alfredo Films

DIRECTOR

Yieldstreet is an alternative investment platform focused on generating passive income streams for investors. I was thrilled to team with the inimitable Kal Penn on Yieldstreet’s first national campaign. The 30-second Hero spot, “Future Kal”, aired on linear and digital and drove traffic to the campaign landing page, where three long-form pieces explained the potential of private markets to new users.

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

In a triumphant return to form, NBCU presented their annual upfront event live at Radio City Music Hall. I was tasked with creating the opening and closing film segments to promote this year’s BravoCon event.

During the upfront event, Radio City’s massive movie screen lowered into place on stage and our opening segment began to play. In the film, the stars lunge for their cell phones and inadvertently concuss each other. Right on cue, the Radio City screen receded away and the stars awoke, LIVE on stage, surrounded by all their favorite “Bravolebrities” along with the 6000 guests in the theater audience. After a spectacular song and dance number, they passed back out on stage, the screen lowered back into place, and the epilogue of our film concluded the tale.

Sadly, I can’t share footage from the Radio City stage show, but here (and below) are a few photos from the live extravaganza. This was an incredibly ambitious multimedia endeavor, and kudos to the entire team at NBCU for having the vision (and the chutzpah) to pull it all off.

Featured on: AdWeek, AdAge, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter.

Agency: NBCU Creative Partnerships

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

Seeds of Change embodies a pragmatic approach to sustainable, efficient, and healthy eating choices, and these wryly funny spots do a lovely job of conveying that messaging while deftly avoiding any finger wagging. Plus, we had the wonderfully absurd challenge of building a genuine rice paddy in the suburbs.

Agency: The&Partnership

DIRECTOR

Neon Zebra is an exciting brand that fills a genuine need — a no fuss, no muss way to make delicious cocktails quickly and easily. We’re all a bit awkward after emerging from our year long hibernation like a bunch of anxious Rip Van Winkles. But the best way to overcome a fear is to face it head on, and there’s no better shepherd to help us get back out into the great wide world than Billy effing Eichner.

Featured in: AdWeek

Agency: Experience Interaction

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

I’ll confess, I’ve always had something of a soft spot for Family Feud. This spot does a terrific job of capturing the magic of the show, the interactivity of the gameplay, the crowdsourcing of its content, and the vindication when nailing the correct answer. And it does it all with a funny (and furry) twist that ties nicely back to the scratch-offs we’re showcasing.

Agency: GKV

Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

I love genre parody. I love making it my mission to deconstruct and decode all of the tools and techniques used to achieve a certain look on screen, especially if it’s archaic or charmingly out of fashion. Rarely have I had more fun on a production than this one!

Featured in: Little Black Book

Agency: Cactus
Production Company: Thinking Machine

DIRECTOR

I was honored and immensely proud to direct this national public health campaign by Vaccinate Your Family in collaboration with Merck, featuring Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, and their family. It encourages families to return to routine health care and stay up to date on recommended vaccinations, especially those that may have been missed during the pandemic.

Agency: Ogilvy

DIRECTOR

Friendly’s ice cream has held a special place in my heart since childhood, so I was thrilled to direct these fun and off-beat spots, as the brand prepared to launch their new ice cream cups in grocers nationwide.

Featured in: SHOOT, Little Black Book, Ads of the World, The Drum

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

DIRECTOR

Cinco de Mayo only falls on a Saturday once every eleven years. So I was excited to direct this Jose Cuervo campaign starring James Van Der Beek, where he makes sure you’ll be ready to party all day. Featured in: Daily Mail

Agency: Experience Interaction

DIRECTOR

It was an absolute pleasure directing the legendary Kirk Herbstreit in this trio of spots for Pizza Hut, designed to air during ESPN’s “College Gameday” broadcasts.

Agency: ESPN Creative Works

DIRECTOR

This was a very fun campaign that cleverly combined two of my favorite things — piñatas and metaphors. Smashing a giant pimple piñata is obviously a bit on the nose (pardon the pun), but it’s also a very fun, visually dynamic device to tell our story and convey our messaging.

Agency: Deutsch NY

DIRECTOR

Did you know that Thanksgiving was the biggest running day of the year? I certainly didn’t, and neither did SNL’s Beck Bennett, who I was thrilled to direct in this campaign.

Michelob Ultra anointed itself “The Official Beer of Turkey Trotters”, and asked Beck to take us on a tour through the hallowed halls of the Turkey Trotter’s Hall of Fame.

Fun Fact: Because of a compressed and wildly ambitious timeline, we built this set on a soundstage, and our three main photo frames were empty while filming. Kudos to the team at The Artery for their seamless VFX work.

Featured on: Mens Journal, The Drum

Agency: DraftLine

DIRECTOR

Food allergies are serious business. So I was honored when asked to direct this seriously fun PSA for End Allergies Together (E.A.T.), guest starring NFL Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis.

The 30-second spot (top) is meant to air on television and digital platforms. The 60-second spot (middle) is the director’s cut. The 95-second spot (bottom) is meant for release in cinemas nationwide, to air in front of film trailers.

Agency: BBDO
Production Company: HILUX

DIRECTOR

February 28th is International Hygge (Hoo-gah) Day. What’s Hygge, you ask? Why it’s the Danish concept of coziness and conviviality that brings about a warm, indescribably pleasant feeling, of course. So, in the middle of winter, on a day that celebrates coziness and comfort, Quilted Northern invited everyone to take a #COMFDAY. Starring the impossibly endearing Renny.

Agency: Mekanism
Production Company: Sister

DIRECTOR

Password: Henkel

I was honored to helm the ambitious Team Clean campaign for Henkel, the parent company behind many well known consumer brands.

We were tasked with producing three branded shorts parodying “CSI” and other TV police procedurals, starring two dirt detectives who take their work waaaay too seriously. Be sure to check out all three episodes!

Password: Henkel

Agency: Epsilon

DIRECTOR

Who doesn’t love watching a dysfunctional family battle rap their problems away? I had the pleasure of directing this broadcast spot for TNT’s “Drop the Mic”, sponsored by Boost Mobile.

Agency: Horizon Media / Treehouse
Production Company: Good Kicks

DIRECTOR

These fun spots feature natural dialogue, set in a real-world location, starring two relatable characters, captured genuinely and unobtrusively.

Nothing says healthy family unit like some gentle ball-busting. Who hasn’t slinked around the kitchen with their mom (or adult son?), and had these awkward, stilted, playful yet antagonizing, generationally-dissonant conversations.

In an instant, we understand and identify with their relationship -- how they jokingly communicate, razzing each other as a means of expressing their genuine affection for one another.

Agency: VanynerMedia

DIRECTOR

Multinational enterprise software company SAP was looking to make a splash with their recent acquisition of the HR software, SuccessFactors.

I was tasked with showcasing several office workers getting themselves all worked up, and summoning the courage to barge into the boss’ corner office. There’s a relatable wish fulfillment to this premise, but the brilliance of this campaign is the way it subverts expectation. Just before the requisite “I quit”, the spot does a complete 180. The employees aren’t quitting. In fact, they’re wildly happy at work, and just need to tell the boss as much.

DIRECTOR

A 6-spot campaign I directed for DirecTV, to promote their new cross-functionality with AT&T devices.

Password: DirecTV

Agency: BBDO
Production Company: HILUX

DIRECTOR

Nationwide Insurance is a sponsor of many NFL teams, and I directed these fun, contextual spots which air in real-time during the games.

Password: NFL

Agency: Ogilvy
Production Company: H&O

DIRECTOR

Do you like Oreos? Do you like cookies? Do you like balls? Well then, you'll like this spot I directed for the holidays. Narcos / Broad City's Arturo Castro did a wonderful job bringing Andy to life. 

Agency: 360i

DIRECTOR

Dale Earnhardt Jr. receives a new car and fire-suit at the start of each NASCAR season. I was tasked with directing the replacement intro for Dale's Nationwide Insurance broadcast campaign. It's short, I know. But we had some fun on set, and shot a #MannequinChallenge, too. See below!

Featured in: USA TODAY

DIRECTOR

Kevin Hart is a man who takes his fitness seriously. He's also the brand ambassador for health insurance carrier, Rally Health. I had the pleasure of directing him in these health-conscious spots, including one to promote his new feature film, "What Now".

Agency: iGo
Production Company: NBTV Studios
 

DIRECTOR

Password: Sabra

Sometimes parents know best. But no kid in their right mind would ever dare to admit it. No way. Not to mom or dad. That’s why Sabra is hiding kid’s identities so they can freely confess how fun and tasty the Sabra hummus their parents put in their lunch box really is — without fear that their parents will find out.

Password: Sabra

Agency: VaynerMedia

DIRECTOR

I was tasked with a unique challenge for this job — we had one week to prep, shoot, and deliver a VFX-intensive spot for Bud Light, parodying their wonderful “Dilly Dilly” campaign, starring five top executives from Anheuser-Busch, intended to play in front of an audience of 4000 at their annual distributor convention, SAMCOM. The twist: Not a single one of the executives were in the same room at the same time for the shoot. Despite the odds stacked against us, I think we pulled it off!

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Production Company: DraftLine

DIRECTOR

A spot I directed to announce Burger King's newest menu offering, Cheetos® Chicken Fries.

Password: BK

Agency: Code & Theory
Production Company: Valiant Pictures

DIRECTOR

A series of fun spots I directed for IBM, as part of a campaign to promote their IT operating systems.

Agency: Ogilvy
Production Company: Black Powder Works

DIRECTOR

German supermarket chain LIDL opened 100 stores along the East Coast, and together we created this series of "efficiency experiments", explaining how they manage to keep their prices so low.

Agency: VML
Prod Company: Black Powder Works

DIRECTOR

BBDO ad agency asked me to direct this spot as part of their pitch presentation to appliance giant Haier.

Password: haier

Agency: BBDO
Prod Company: HSUBOX Productions

Director

The great folks over at Verizon asked me to help create a series of convincing "shopping haul" videos starring their adorable, tech savvy septuagenarian, Grandma Ellie -- played by the inimitable Broadway legend, Marylouise Burke.

Agency: McGarryBowen
Prod Company: Above Average

Director | Editor

Casey Jost and a host of other great comics star in these broadcast spots I directed for Comedy Central.

DIRECTOR

Foot Locker's new women's athletic apparel brand, SIX:02, teamed up with The Fat Jewish and Anastasia Ashley to promote their #ITSYOURTIMETODOYOU campaign.

Agency: BBDO
Prod Company: HSUBOX Productions

Director | Editor

A branded spot created for Comedy Central, starring Casey Jost, Henry Zebrowski, Lisa Kleinman, Gary Richardson, Riley Soloner

520,000+ VIEWS

Director | Editor

SquareEnix and Midnight Oil Creative asked me to capture this elaborate prank they had planned for the attendees of PAX East. It was quite the production.

And scroll down to check out the teaser trailer (Password: pax)

Director | Writer | Producer | Editor

A fun spot we shot on spec for Novartis. They didn't ask us to shoot it. But we shot it for them, anyway. See below for the director's cut.