Workhorse Media, an L.A.-based production company headed by executive producer and principal Pola Brown–has added directors Darren Ashton and Michael Sugrue to its roster for exclusive US representation.
Ashton is an Australian who was not previously been represented in the US. In Australia he directs through Exit Films. Sugrue, a still photographer who moved into motion work several years ago, joins Workhorse Media from Republic Content. Ashton and Sugrue are now part of a Workhorse Media directorial roster that includes Peter Gilbert, Maro Chermayeff, Paolo Gandola, Hugo Maza, Roberto Bado, Jones & Kelly and Paul Kamuf.
Ashton is best known in Australia for his comedy work for brands such as NRMA Insurance, Vodafone and others, as well as for his 2007 comic feature film, Razzle Dazzle, a send-up of overbearing stage mothers and dance competitions.
No stranger to the US, Ashton sports a showreel that includes a comedy spot for Woolworth’s branded beef that features a friendly Aussie handing out barbecued samples of the product to typically quirky real people on the streets of New York City, including two grateful cops who were not averse to grabbing a quick bite while in their squad car.
Ashton said many Aussies are used to bopping back and forth between their home and the States, “so it’s really not a big deal for us. And when Pola contacted me about it, I was impressed; she’s a go-getter who knows what she’s doing. As I’m fully committed to working in the US, it just felt like the right time.”
Meanwhile, Sugrue’s work includes a stylistically diverse range of web videos and TV spots for such brands as Purina, Microsoft, ESPN, Novartis, and Visa, among others. A photojournalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he worked in New York for six years before relocating to Northern California, where he’s currently based.
Often mixing still assignments with video shoots, Sugrue has worked all over the world. He’s directed, shot and at times edited a number of short films and videos for agencies and corporate clients, as well as an impressive slate of personal short films. These have screened at film festivals around the US, with the most recent, Dalston, being named a Vimeo Staff Pick. He’s just back from the Middle East, where he shot a series of documentary-style promotional videos as well as stills for the Salalah Free Trade Zone in Oman.
Sugrue’s films, while often based in reality, don’t fit the typical description of documentary work. “I like to take reality and finesse it,” he explains, “employing lighting and camera moves that you don’t normally see in docu-style work to add mood and emotion.”
Workhorse Media is represented on the East Coast by Daria Zeliger of A:D Talent Management, in the Southeast by Jim Miller of Miller & Associates and on the West Coast by Sherry Howell of Sherry & Company.
Denzel Washington, Michael J. Fox and Bono Among Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients
In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband former President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea Clinton and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation's highest civilian honor in a White House ceremony.
"For the final time as president I have the honor bestowing the Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor, on a group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people, who gave their sacred effort, their sacred effort, to shape the culture and the cause of America," Biden said in his opening remarks.
"Let me just say to each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you've done to help this country," Biden said Saturday.
Four medals were awarded posthumously. They went to George W. Romney, who served as both a Michigan governor and secretary of housing and urban development; former Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; Ash Carter, a former secretary of defense; and Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the groundwork for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Kennedy is father to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for health and human services secretary. Biden said, "Bobby is one of my true political heroes. I love and I miss him dearly."
Romney is the father of former Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, one of... Read More