CoMPANY signs Ben Nakamura Whitehouse

CoMPANY Films has signed Ben Nakamura Whitehouse for exclusive commercial representation in the US. 

The new arrival to CoMPANY’S Stateside directorial roster was announced by Executive Producers Ron Cicero and Richard Goldstein. Whitehouse has directed comedic, production-design intense spots for Subway, Twix, X/Twitter, Amazon, Pinterest, Nissan and Skoda, among others.

Growing up alongside an engineer-minded father and an accomplished fine artist for a mother, it was almost inevitable Whitehouse would be attracted to a creative profession that encompassed a diverse set of problem solving skills.

“I had very little exposure to TV growing up, but was lucky to find a steady source of new and classic movies, which I loved,” says Whitehouse. “So when I walked into a London office as an assistant in my late teens, I really had a very limited idea of what commercials were, or how they could be related to the movies. Fortunately the office I walked into was Michel Gondry’s, at the very height of his commercial career. I was like, ‘Wait, you can do commercials like that?!’ AND, get paid for it?” It was all so incredibly glamorous. For a kid who grew up with a ceramics kiln in his kitchen, I was immediately hooked.”

Whitehouse put his head down and proved his worth as a ghost writer for some of the biggest spot directors in the business, a unique kind of film school that ultimately led him to the director’s chair. “I absolutely love collaborating with agencies to continue to evolve the creative; to create unique settings, often heavily art directed, to elevate the creative and make sure whatever genre we are working in, Westerns, Adventure, Monster Sci-Fi, etc, that we bring an authenticity to the screen," he says. "Not so much keeping it true-to-life, but rather true to the cinematic style.”