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CYLNDR Studios hires Leah Chaney as Director of Influencer
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Chaney will expand the studio’s production-first model, embedding influencers and creators into the creative process from the start.
CYLNDR Studios announced the appointment of Leah Chaney as director of influencer, a move that signals the evolution of the discipline within the studio.
Chaney steps in to expand and redefine CYLNDR Studios’ influencer practice, ensuring that when creators are engaged for campaigns they are a driving creative force, not just a distribution channel.
Already partnering with global brands including Little Caesars, Samsung and Ross Dress for Less, CYLNDR Studios has been integrating creators into its production-first approach, where every idea is grounded in reality, but designed to push beyond it. Chaney’s role is to formalise and scale that philosophy by embedding creators alongside strategists, designers and filmmakers from the very beginning. Transforming influence into something authored, not applied.
“There’s been a ceiling on influencer because we (the industry) have treated it as an output,” said Chaney. “The real opportunity is to treat it like authorship. Creators shouldn’t be brought in to execute ideas, they should be helping define them. That’s how the work becomes something undeniable and culturally impactful.”
At CYLNDR Studios, production is the strategy, which removes the distance between idea and execution. This shifts the focus from managing outputs to shaping ideas where craft, instinct, and cultural fluency sharpen the work in real time. The goal isn’t more content. It’s work that earns real attention. From episodic storytelling to creator-led formats, Chaney will lead a new wave of work designed to resonate beyond the scroll.
“The industry has gotten very good at producing content,” Chaney added. “But not all content is treated equally. Creators are directors, editors, storytellers; they understand attention better than most of the industry. The future is entertainment and to keep up, we must have a true creative and collaborative mindset from the beginning.”
Chaney most recently served as director of creator partnerships at Wasserman, where she led teams and global accounts across Meta, Clorox and Google. Her work also spans branded content and production collaborations with Netflix, Paramount, NBC and Hulu, shaping her perspective that the future of brand storytelling sits at the intersection of entertainment and influence.
Outside of the agency world, Chaney is also a filmmaker, a creative lens she shares with CYLNDR Studios’ managing director Sylvain Tron, whose work with Werner Herzog, Greta Gerwig, Harmony Korine and the Safdie Brothers has been featured at Cannes, Sundance and TIFF.
“Our studio is built to mitigate ‘the handoff tax,’ which we’ve coined as the cost of watering down an idea as it passes through multiple decks, departments and rounds of edits. We believe that bringing ideation and content creation as close together as possible is what leads to breakthrough work. Every hire from director of film craft to now director of influencer is made with this ethos in mind,” said Tron. “Chaney shares that vision when it comes to influencer work. She knows that creators need to be part of the strategy; they need to be influencing the brief.”
