Hornet signs multimedia director Lucas Ansel

Student Academy Award-winning multimedia director Lucas Ansel has signed with creative studio Hornet for US representation.

Ansel's work spans commercial projects for brands including Apple, Adidas and Emma Chamberlain's Chamberlain Coffee, alongside short-form filmmaking. His film The 12 Inch Pianist, based on comedian Simon Rich's Guy Walks Into a Bar for The New Yorker, screened at festivals including Annecy, Ottawa, Pictoplasma, Manchester Animation Festival and Brooklyn Film Festival, and went on to win a Student Academy Award.

Hornet describes Ansel's approach to storytelling as one that draws on miscommunication, unexpected turns and unlikely connections, with influences ranging from visits to The Met and song lyrics to the childhood nostalgia of Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The studio also highlights his belief in leaving room for boredom as a way of generating new ideas.

“We’re always looking for artists who find unexpected ways into a story,” says Kristin Labriola, Head of Creative Development at Hornet. “In the commercial world, you only have seconds to make someone feel something, and with Lucas, his output feels instinctive - coming straight from his brain, unfiltered. You see it in the visuals, the rhythm, and the way he takes something ordinary and makes it feel more charged, more deeply human, and often pretty funny.”