Gifted Youth strengthens its bicoastal foothold, bringing aboard advertising veteran Josh Morse as its executive producer in New York and partnering with Barrie Isaacson Management as its East Coast sales team. Morse’s experience spans the ad agency and production sides of the business.
A Queens-native (and current resident), Morse while studying film at Cornell University worked as a PA on film sets and it was his post-graduation job at a camera rental house that gained him entré to the advertising world, where he traded camera equipment for the opportunity to interview at J Walter Thompson NY. From there, Morse moved to Cliff Freeman & Partners, an agency renowned for its comedic ads, followed by TBWAChiatDay, where he cultivated an impressive portfolio including successful campaigns for Absolut and Jameson.
In 2012, Morse joined Barton F. Graf and was instrumental in helping the then-young agency build its production unit. Working across all disciplines–film, video, print, art-buying, digital, experiential–Morse became head of integrated production, forging a name with campaigns for clients like Keep A Child Alive, Bulleit Bourbon, Axe, Jameson Whiskey, Kayak and gaming giant Supercell. Under his direction, the Barton F. Graf’s Super Bowl spot for Supercell’s Clash of Clans went viral, amassing nearly 73 million YouTube views to date. Morse’s work has won virtually every industry award, including numerous Cannes Lions, Facebook Global, and D&AD awards.
Morse has always been drawn to comedy, saying, “When advertising takes itself too seriously, it can feel silly and a bit insincere. Comedic advertising, to me, has always felt more authentic. I’m excited to bring my experience with agencies, as well as the worlds of digital and experiential media, to expand Gifted Youth’s offerings into new and exciting avenues. And also make people laugh at the same time.”
On joining managing director Dal Wolf’s team, Morse said, “I’m aligned with the culture here, which is absolutely key to making the best work possible. Their team, they have an insanely high quality of creative standards. The Gifted Youth roster and the reach they have–that goes well beyond the advertising world into all facets of entertainment–sealed the deal.”
Gifted Youth, whose parent company Funny Or Die touts Will Ferrell and Adam McKay as its founders, celebrates its sixth anniversary this year.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More