“So what’s your take?” That’s the question Kareem Rahma famously poses to a curated collection of subway riders in his hit Instagram series Subway Takes. In his viral TikTok series Keep the Meter Running, Rahma hails New York City cabs and asks drivers to take him to their favorite pitstops. The comedy creator is now hopping a different train, joining the advertising industry as a commercial director on the roster of Los Films, the director-led live-action discipline of the creative studio Los York. Although this is his first representation for commercial directing, Rahma is no stranger to the game. He just finished directing “UPS Business Trips” via The Martin Agency, a multi-episode branded twist on his popular cabbie show, featuring Rahma jumping aboard the ubiquitous brown trucks and being taken for a ride by gabby delivery drivers to visit small businesses.
Rahma directs or co-directs most of the content he creates, thus the leap to becoming a full-fledged commercial director is a natural one. He has worked with brands on paid partnership segments of Instagram and TikTok series, including H&M, Urban Outfitters, KOTN and J. Crew. He also was behind the camera and in front as a man-on-the-street in a TV campaign for the finance app Leveler. For two years Rahma has held the tongue-in-cheek “fake” title of chief imagination officer for Air, the creative collaboration platform, and co-directed a viral spot for the brand starring himself and TikTok star The Rizzler. Early in his career, Rahma was the director of marketing at Vice, where he worked on branded content for Coca-Cola, Intel and W Hotels, to name a few.
“A lot of people wake up in the morning and want to be directors,” said Rahma. “But after making thousands of hours of content, films, sketches, standup clips, Instagram memes, two successful social series, I didn’t even think about it until Chris Abitbol approached me and asked if I ever thought about ‘directing.’ It was a lightbulb moment. I’m looking forward to expanding my universe with Los Films, bringing my creativity to new platforms and formats, and bringing my personal vision to branded projects. For me it’s all about making fun, irreverent commercials, taking something serious and making it funny, or taking something funny and making it serious.”
“Kareem Rahma is one of the funniest, most effortlessly genius people I’ve ever met,” said Abitbol, the head of film at Los Films. “He has this way of framing the world–his world–that pulls you in, cracks you up, and taps right into the zeitgeist with what looks like zero effort, but actually is a lot of work. And he gets millions of people to see it that way too. Kareem isn’t just making content–he’s shaping culture in real time. That’s the kind of director Los Films is built for: someone who doesn’t just ride the wave but creates the damn thing.”
Rahma is a prolific and talented star in front of the camera as well as behind. He’s a lead actor in the 2024 feature film Or Something, directed by Jeffrey Scotti Schroeder. Rahma wrote, produced and starred in another influencer-cum-director and contemporary Nicolas Heller’s short film Out of Order, which debuted at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. Rahma was the producer and executive producer for several other films, including Miracle Fishing: Kidnapped Abroad, and Ferguson Rises, also Tribeca premieres. He has been nominated for three Webby awards for Best Longform Comedy, Best Short Form Comedy and Best Individual Performance.
Kareem Rahma and the entire directorial roster of Los Films are represented on the East and West Coasts by Simpatico, in the Midwest by SG+P Reps and for multicultural work by Momentum.
