Zulu Alpha Kilo in Toronto has made a number of creative promotions and hires across its various disciplines. The agency has promoted Jenny Luong, Kevin Sato, and Vinay Parmar to serve as creative directors. Luong, who first worked at Zulu in 2013, returned to the agency in the summer of 2020 from DDB Chicago. During this past year, Luong has been behind some award-winning work for Cineplex, the ADCC, and HomeEquity Bank. Sato and Parmar have been at the agency for four years and were promoted to associate creative director in October 2019. They have developed award-winning campaigns for Consonant Skin+Care, Reskinning Queen Street West, Betadine, SingleCut Beersmiths and the HomeEquity Bank web series Catch the Scam. Additionally, Zulu has hired Sylvia Stultz from Edelman as head of talent attraction. Stultz will be responsible for taking the agency’s recruitment to the next level as it continues to put a premium on attracting top talent. Furthermore, Zulu has welcomed Matt Camara as a creative director and Ryan Kukec as an associate creative director. Camara comes over from doug + partners. He has worked on many brands including Go RVing Canada, Coca-Cola, and Audi. His work has been recognized by Cannes, Cassies, Effies and the Canadian Marketing Awards. Kukec joins from Cossette. Notable recent work includes “This is Why” for Sick Kids, “Pizza Patio Furniture” for Boston Pizza, and “Haulers” for No Frills. His work has been awarded at Cannes, D&AD, the Effies, Webby, and more. Also coming aboard Zulu are design director Dejan Djuric after 10 years at Leo Burnett, and sr. designer Jackman Chiu after eight years at Jacknife Design. In strategy, Zulu has brought on board Patrick Henderson from TAXI as director, digital strategy, and Cameron Fleming from Forsman & Bodenfors as strategy director. And there have been four new hires on the production front: Tracy Wightman, most recently at Leo Burnett, joins as sr. digital producer; and Heather Hyland from Community Agency, Jason Pearson, who’d been freelancing for many years, and Andrew Sekine from Postmedia join as integrated producers. Zulu’s in-house content division, Zulubot, added a head of production, hiring Adam Palmer who had been freelancing at the content studio since leaving Popp Rok. This hire will allow Tom Evans, Zulubot’s managing director, to provide even more focus on running and growing the business….
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