Director Kevin Bray has come aboard the roster of L.A. based Hound for U.S. representation spanning commercials, branded content and music videos.
Bray got his start as a director in the music video arena, working with such notable artists as Jennifer Lopez, Brandy, Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Biz Markie and Eric B. & Rakim. In the ad space, he has helmed spots for brands such as USA Network, Nike, Puma, Verizon, Macy’s and the Florida Lottery. His extensive television directing credits include work for such shows as Suits, The Killing, Heroes, Scandal, Veronica Mars, The Vampire Diaries, Insecure, Empire, The Americans and Black-ish. Bray is currently directing two episodes for Season 2 of the HBO comedy Insecure, a number of episodes for Season 4 of ABC’s Golden Globe-winning comedy Black-ish, and is currently in development on a number of episodic series.
Bray’s iconic music video work led to his entree into feature film, making his feature debut with All About the Benjamins, starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps and Eva Mendes. Additional features include the remake of Walking Tall starring The Rock, and Linewatch starring Cuba Gooding Jr.
“Kevin delivers a fresh perspective to each and every project that he works on, bringing an energy that pushes the whole cast and crew to challenge themselves creatively,” noted Hound executive producer Missy Galanida. “His extensive background in music videos and television are perfectly aligned with the current branded content landscape. He brings such an authentic entertainment value to every project he works on, regardless of genre.”
Bray previously collaborated with Galanida at commercial/music video production house DNA and on various music video projects since. “Missy exhibits that same integral improv ethos that I have with my work and that continuity allows for some great creative collaboration,” said Bray. “There are no bad ideas and working with people who are in sync to exploring new approaches results in much better work.”
Growing up in a family of cinephiles, Bray has a passion for filmmaking that was nurtured by his songwriter brother, mentoring him through film studies at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Drawing an inspiration from music and story, Bray directed his first video for De La Soul’s track “Potholes in My Lawn.” Deriving a free-form and improvisational approach to filmmaking from his music video work, his experiences across commercials, television, features and music clips have reciprocally informed one another, allowed for a fresh cross-pollination of ideas and techniques across all disciplines.
