Hustle, a strategic business development and management agency representing creative and production talent, has gone bicoastal with the appointment of Mike Lobikis as partner/talent rep for the West Coast. This extends the sales force’s representation of production company Partizan into the West Coast market, in addition to its ongoing duties in the East. This added reach follows growth in the New York office, since Hustle added to its group by bringing on Jenn Johnson, president of NY-based firm Open Season, as a partner. Johnson’s background as both an agency producer and rep for top studios like B-Reel, Radical, and Identity, has quickly proven to be invaluable to the growth of the firm. Hustle has an expansive East Coast live-action roster led by NY-based partner Anya Zander, including Partizan, Ruffian, Tool of NA, Sweetshop, Humble, Whitehouse Post, and NO6. The partnership with Lobikis signifies the expansion of Hustle’s live-action offering on the West Coast, where it also currently reps experience/design companies such as MediaMonks, Jam3, and Resn (under the leadership of Hustle founder Jake Neske.) Lobikis has spent the past decade representing award-winning creative talent. Most recently serving as executive producer at MassAppeal, Lobikis produced content for brands including Nike, Patron, and Asics, while finding niche, direct-to-brand ways to elevate the studio’s offering, including creating SoundCloud’s first-ever advertising campaign. Prior to that, Lobikis served as head of development at Tool where he was instrumental in leading a global business development team and building partnerships with myriad clients to great success. Lobikis will serve as the LA-based counterpart to NY-based Zander, who has been at the helm of Hustle for the past six years, since she merged her own repping firm with the company. At that time, Zander brought on senior sales agent Andrew Michaeloff from Partizan, and together they grew the live-action division, as well as their post/VFX/design and music offering, while Neske focused on building the interactive side…..
DP Luca Del Puppo has joined Innovative Artists for representation in both commercials and narrative. He has worked on films such as Slender Man and with brands such as Levi’s, Toyota, Gillette and Haagen Dazs….