Ramp named director of talent
MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER, a San Francisco-based ad agency, has appointed Paul Stechschulte to serve as executive creative director, Tanya LeSieur as head of production and Katie Ramp as director of talent.
Stechschulte will report to agency founder/chief creative officer John Matejczyk and oversee day-to-day management of the San Francisco office’s creative output. He joins the agency from his post as a creative director for Airbnb, where he led the “Accept” campaign, championing the brand’s commitment to diversity. He previously held creative roles at agencies including Arnold Amsterdam, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Wieden+Kennedy.
LeSieur will be oversee production for all agency clients, including method home, Audi, and AAA. She most recently served as chief production officer at TBWAChiatDay, working with brands such as Airbnb, Disney, Energizer and Gatorade. Prior to TBWAChiatDay, LeSieur led production departments at Saatchi & Saatchi in Los Angeles and New York, where she worked with current MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER staffer Jay Benjamin, the creative lead of the agency’s New York office. She takes on a role left vacant by Michelle Spear Nicholson and also will report to Matejczyk.
Ramp assumes a newly created role for the agency after working at Heat, where she spent over three years as a recruiter for all full time and freelance staff, and serving as an ambassador for the agency in the advertising community. She will be responsible for recruiting across all departments for MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER, and will work closely on talent development.
The hires come just one year after the agency joined in a creative partnership with global network VCCP in May of last year. Since the partnership was announced, the agency also opened a New York outpost.
“We’re very fortunate to have such a talented trio joining the agency,” Matejczyk said. “Tanya is hugely respected throughout the industry as an innovative, proactive production leader. She and I first worked together at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, and since then she’s led the teams at Saatchi LA, Saatchi NY, and TBWAChiatDay North America.
“Katie has already made herself indispensable here. She is serving up outstanding talent and getting involved with our people here in fresh and exciting ways. Her energy is infectious and everyone around her gets a lift. As for Paul, he’s a massively prolific creative leader. From the heyday of Crispin, to leading Goodby’s wonderful Sprint work, to roaming the globe for Wieden+Kennedy, to shepherding Airbnb’s foray into the Super Bowl, his creative range and steady leadership help brands and agencies alike achieve great things.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More