Florence Poppy Deary enters orbit

In an industry that can all too often falsely advertise next-big-thing discovery stories, Florence Poppy Deary’s win as shots EMEA New Director of the Year presents a delightful paradox.

The accolade suggests a brilliant newcomer, freshly launched into the spotlight. The reality is a hard earned, decade-long campaign of creative self-realisation.

Her directorial recognition marks an acceleration. The engine remains the same: an anxiety that she hasn't yet found the perfect comedic angle, the sharpest way into any script she's handed. "I don't really sleep until I've figured out the answer," she admits. It's the kind of obsession that burns people out. Or, channelled properly, builds careers.

I have a list of things that I manifest daily and [a shots award] was on my list.

In spring 2025, Biscuit Filmworks announced the signing of Deary for UK commercial representation. She had already directed spots for Hilton Hotels, 48 Mobile, and Airalo and had swept three Golds at the Kinsale Sharks for her animated short Is This A Good Time? 

Her live-action short SOS, But Don't Worry If Not had been selected for Cannes Short Film Festival, Hollywood Shortsfest, and BAFTA-qualifying LOCO.

Above: Deary’s short film S.O.S...But Don't Worry If Not was selected for Cannes Short Film Festival.

By autumn she was up at the podium accepting her shots award. "I have a list of things that I manifest daily and it was on my list," she admits of the award, however in true comic style. "I went up too early, looked like a complete loser, stood there awkwardly for what felt like hours. It was thirty seconds."

The path to that podium began, improbably, in a tutorial room at Brighton University. A 22-year-old illustration student, bleary from the night before's party, presented her scrappy hand-drawn animations to a panel of tutors. Their verdict was blunt: "You're really bad at animation. But your ideas are really good, and that's the thing that sings. So you should do something that requires you to have ideas.”

For years she had been, she says “like a spaceship looping round a planet and just missing gravity; being ever so slightly off on the wrong trajectory.”

[Jeff Low] is the smartest person I've ever spoken to in my whole life. I'm still not cool in front of him.

Deary took her tutors’ advice. She moved to London, joined Quiet Storm as Art Director, under the mentorship of the legendary founder Trevor Robinson and began learning her craft. The Yakult Science Not Magic work emerged from that period: a brilliantly acerbic

takedown of wellness marketing that she co-created with Robinson. "We used to have so much fun writing stuff that we knew no one in hell would let us present to clients," she recalls. "Just sitting in Trevor's office trying to make each other laugh."

Above: Deary worked with Trevor Robinson in 2016 Yakult campaign, Science Not Magic, a droll series that spoofed wellness marketing.

From Quiet Storm she moved to Mr. President under Laura Jordan Bambach, after leaving an indelible mark –"I made these transfer tattoos of my number and email address; they didn't come off for weeks" – and eventually to Wieden+Kennedy London, where she worked on Nike, Sainsbury's, TK Maxx, Diet Coke.

All the while, she was animating in the evenings, building a cult Instagram following with pithy observations of London life, quietly wondering why she wasn't doing the thing she actually wanted to do.

I'm a comedy director, not a female comedy director. I just direct comedy.

The turning point came on the set of a TK Maxx shoot, when she met Jeff Low, Hanna Bayatti and Rupert Reynolds-MacLean from Biscuit. Low asked why she wasn't directing. Deary recalls. "He's the smartest person I've ever spoken to in my whole life. I'm still not cool in front of him."

Above: In her multi award-winning, autobiographical short film, Is This a Good Time? Deary hilariously depicts a floating intrusive-thought character who sets about ruining a woman's bath.

What Low offered was transformative: mentorship, belief, and crucially, a strategy. "He basically said: 'I'll tell everyone you're great'. I don't think he realised what an incredible ally he was being in saying, ‘I know you're good, I'll help you, people will listen to me’."

When Low texted a script for a fake cheese ad, she didn't ponder; she produced. Shot it. Cut it. Graded it. "I sent it to Jeff and he was like, 'that's the coolest thing – to text someone a script and then them go, Here, it's done.'" This was the new model: rapid, relevant, proof-of-concept creation. No waiting for permission, only for the right punchline.

I was sitting in the bath thinking: you've really got to figure this out. And I just wrote it.

More work followed: the Hilton Hotels That Moment When... campaign, but the breakthrough came with Is This A Good Time? – a one-minute animated short made while she was at her most miserable as a creative. "I was sitting in the bath thinking: you've really got to figure this out. And I just wrote it." The film swept three Golds at Kinsale: Best Animated Short, Best Short Short, Best Writing.

This marked more of a public breakthrough, a brilliantly formed short, a portrait of anxiety featuring her now-iconic blue inner critic, a one-woman-band production. Its success was the validation of every silent hour spent at her computer. "Suddenly, you're in a different world, and people are taking you more seriously than you've taken yourself before.”

Above: In 2020 Deary was one of the creatives at W+K London behind the Lil Goat spot for TK Maxx.

The issue of taking oneself seriously drove SOS, But Don't Worry If Not – a short film about male emotional repression set on a sinking ship, born from a lockdown doodle of a desert island with ‘help’ spelt out in sticks, followed by ‘but don't worry if not.’

The film takes itself completely seriously while being utterly ridiculous: men in traditional macho roles who can't quite manage to communicate. "I wanted the serious version of itself," she explains. "So when the characters open their mouths, you're expecting an action film. And then this guy's like: I'm having a bad time actually, but please don't tell anyone."

You feel out of your depth – which I love. Because you think: I need to be better. And that makes you the best version of yourself.

That it was written by a woman about male vulnerability was intentional only in retrospect. "I don't want to be typecast," she says firmly. "I'm a comedy director, not a female comedy director. I just direct comedy. I can see how human beings' brains work – that's the only thing I'm interested in."

Working with Biscuit, she found not just representation but infrastructure. "They didn't just say: go on then. They said: we're going to completely look after you. I was immediately cradled by the best people – legendary DPs, brilliant production designers, the best location managers." The intimidation factor, she insists, is essential. "Everyone there is so intelligent that you feel out of your depth – which I love. Because you think: I need to be better. And that makes you the best version of yourself."