Grey London has promoted Celeste Dalairac to executive creative director. An audacious creative and strong leader, Dalairac joined Grey back in February as creative director and her elevation to ECD is a testament to the enormous impact she has made in a short space of time at the agency.
A multi-award-winning creative director who has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Coca Cola, GSK, Unilever, P&G, Avon and Vodafone, Dalairac grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she started out as a copywriter but then made a move into art direction, as a self-taught creative.
In her new role, Dalairac reports to president and CCO UK Laura Jordan Bambach. Dalairac’s 17-year career has seen her work for small hot shops and network giants such as Ogilvy, Del Campo Saatchi Argentina and Saatchi London, where she was regional creative director, part of the Creative Council and a member of Publicis’ VivaWomen.
Back in 2014, she was also one of 12 women chosen globally to be part of the first See It Be It program, a Cannes Lions initiative which aims to further women in the creative industry.
Dalairac has recently been selected as one of the top 10 up-and-coming creative female leaders at Grey globally to take part in Goldin–Grey Global’s women leadership program mentoring creative female leaders.
Bambach said, “The fact that, within four months, Celeste has been promoted to ECD and joined Grey’s women leadership program to prepare her for the next step up the career ladder, illustrates quite how delighted we are to have such a star player on the team. Celeste goes the extra mile for clients and colleagues alike. We know she will achieve great things, not only through her work for our clients but also as she continues to champion diversity in all its forms.”
Dalairac said, “I’ve mentored junior creatives and given talks about what it’s like to be a woman working in advertising, but the best way to support female talent is to hire more women, promote them and give them exposure. I felt immediately at home at Grey and I am honored to have been tasked with helping the agency ensure it fosters the perfect environment for creative work and talented people to thrive. Creating the right environment for great creativity is key.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More