Director, actress and writer Bola Ogun has signed with Believe Media for U.S. commercial representation. Believe will be the first company to represent Ogun for commercial work as a director.
A first generation Nigerian-American filmmaker, Ogun landed her television directorial debut on Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar after DuVernay saw Bola’s short Are We Good Parents? at SXSW in 2018. The film, which she not only directed but also co-wrote and co-produced, is frequently praised for its portrayal of panicked progressive parents hoping to raise their child in a warm, accepting environment and earned Best Short Film and Best Emerging Filmmaker at the AT&T SHAPE Awards. Her directing career has since flourished with episodic credits including Lucifer, Charmed, Siren, and she most recently finished her second season premiere block on Netflix’s Shadow & Bone to gear up for the season three finale block of The Witcher.
Following a brief interaction with director Floria Sigismondi (The Turning, The Runaways) after a panel discussion, the two filmmakers connected through Ogun’s work in television and Sigismondi eventually introduced her to Believe Media executive producers Liz Silver and Marc Benardout.
“When I met Bola I could not ignore her contagious energy,” commented Sigismondi. “She has a unique perspective to her work that pushes imaginative storytelling with emotional impact.”
“I had to meet Floria,” laughed Ogun. “I have watched her ‘Fighter’ music video with Christina Aguilera so many times–it’s a piece of art that blew my mind and I needed her to know how much she influenced my idea of becoming a filmmaker.”
Ogun’s introduction to film, beyond early years in Texas doing “Shakespeare in the Park” and musical theatre, began when she left university to start working in the industry as a production assistant between Dallas and Austin on the sets of Prison Break, Walking Tall and Friday Night Lights. Ogun carried her experience to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, James Wan’s Insidious: Chapter 2 and David Fincher’s Mindhunter.
After many years working on production crews, Ogun needed something more creatively challenging. She began her self-described “Issa Rae” approach of “do it yourself” and began writing, which earned her spots in the 2014 AFI Directing Workshop for Women, Ryan Murphy’s Television HALF Mentorship Program, one of the five filmmakers for Robert Rodriguez’s docuseries Rebel Without A Crew and a participant in WeForShe’s DirectHer program. In 2019, she secured an episode of CW’s Legacies through Warner Brothers Directors’ Workshop.
Ogun will join Believe Media’s international directing roster which includes Sigismondi, Zack Snyder, Impossible Brief, Paola Kudacki, and Jake Nava, artists who have produced era-defining music videos for legends Beyonce, Adele and Foo Fighters and iconic brand work such as 2021 Cannes Lion-winning Rémy Martin X Usher “Team Up for Excellence” and Sigismondi’s Clio award-winning Gucci Bloom campaign featuring Anjelica Huston and Florence Welch.
“The Believe roster is stacked with directors who each have a distinct voice and bring a style to all their work,” noted Ogun. “I feel fortunate to join a company that cares deeply about creating work that lives beyond the moment.”
“We’re relentless in bringing excellence in talent and production to our clients,” added Believe Media CEO Liz Silver. “Bola embodies these principles in every piece of work she touches. We can’t wait to see her vision reach brands.”
