BBH Entertainment, the entertainment development arm of creative agency BBH USA, has brought in TV producer and development executive Ali Fazel to serve as its SVP, head of development and current programming. His credits include hit shows such as Shark Tank.
Reporting to BBH USA CEO Amani Duncan and CCO Rafa Rizuto, Fazel will lead BBH Entertainment’s development of premium entertainment content, both branded and unbranded–including television, feature film, documentary and more.
Fazel joins BBH Entertainment at a time of great momentum, with season two of the award-winning, first-of-its-kind mobile device competition series, Exposure, premiering on May 29. Exposure was developed in a creative partnership between BBH Entertainment and its client Samsung; Fazel served as an executive producer on the program. This year’s competition is focused on the 15-second to one-minute video format. The series represents a new model of entertainment that showcases how co-produced episodic programming can come to life outside of traditional advertising media. In May, BBH Entertainment also launched Samsung Superstar Galaxy on Roblox–a free-to-play virtual experience that culminates with a virtual Charli XCX concert, which currently has over two million visitor engagements.
“Ali has such sharp instincts for what the next big cultural moment will be,” said Duncan. “His deep experience in developing content, combined with his ability to work in different media and genres, gives him a unique POV on how to connect with a broad range of audiences. Under his leadership, BBH Entertainment will continue breaking barriers, helping clients create and monetize IP to articulate their individual stories.”
In addition to Shark Tank, Fazel’s producer credits include Amazon’s Making the Cut, as well as Legendary and My Mom, Your Dad on HBO Max.
Fazel said, “Having access to a surreal level of creative talent at BBH USA, and together being able to craft creative ideas that truly zag as entertainment properties, is not only a thrill, it gives us an incredibly strong advantage. We are setting a new standard for branded entertainment as we also elevate BBH’s profile in the traditional entertainment space.”
Fazel’s parents immigrated from Afghanistan as refugees, where they both worked in TV and radio. Growing up in a suburb near Los Angeles, where his father owned a video store, he credits being raised by immigrant art-and-media-loving parents with providing him with a unique lens on the relationship between media and culture and with exposing him to a diverse array of entertainment from all over the world.
Fazel began his career in the music business, working with the global head of music at William Morris Endeavor (WME) where their focus was creating film, TV and sponsorship opportunities for clients such as Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Pharrell.
After WME, Fazel went on to work as manager of development to unscripted veteran and pioneer, Clay Newbill. Most recently, Fazel was head of development at Overtime Sports, a venture backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony, that creates sports content tailored to Millennial and Gen Z audiences.
Review: Director John Crowley’s “We Live In Time”
It's not hard to spend a few hours watching Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield fall and be in love. In "We Live In Time," filmmaker John Crowley puts the audience up close and personal with this photogenic British couple through the highs and lows of a relationships in their 30s.
Everyone starts to think about the idea of time, and not having enough of it to do everything they want, at some point. But it seems to hit a lot of us very acutely in that tricky, lovely third decade. There's that cruel biological clock, of course, but also careers and homes and families getting older. Throw a cancer diagnosis in there and that timer gets ever more aggressive.
While we, and Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh), do indeed live in time, as we're constantly reminded in big and small ways — clocks and stopwatches are ever-present, literally and metaphorically — the movie hovers above it. The storytelling jumps back and forth through time like a scattershot memory as we piece together these lives that intersect in an elaborate, mystical and darkly comedic way: Almut runs into Tobias with her car. Their first chat is in a hospital hallway, with those glaring fluorescent lights and him bruised and cut all over. But he's so struck by this beautiful woman in front of him, he barely seems to care.
I suppose this could be considered a Lubitschian "meet-cute" even if it knowingly pushes the boundaries of our understanding of that romance trope. Before the hit, Tobias was in a hotel, attempting to sign divorce papers and his pens were out of ink and pencils kept breaking. In a fit of near-mania he leaves, wearing only his bathrobe, to go to a corner store and buy more. Walking back, he drops something in the street and bang: A new relationship is born. It's the... Read More