The U.S. office of global production and entertainment company Merman has signed Naima Ramos-Chapman to its roster of commercial and branded content directors. Ramos-Chapman is an American director, writer and actor known for writing, producing, directing and acting in several high-profile TV series including Hulu’s The Other Black Girl, HBO's Peabody award-winning Random Acts of Flyness, the GenZ comedy series Betty and Boots Reilly’s satirical Amazon series I’m a Virgo.
Ramos-Chapman’s first short film And Nothing Happened premiered at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival and is now a part of the Criterion Collection. Ramos-Chapman also directed the powerful short thriller Piu Piu, which premiered at the 2018 BlackStar Film Festival. This is the former Sundance Institute Screenwriter Intensive Fellow’s first representation for spot direction.
“Naima is a supremely talented, interdisciplinary artist,” said Merman global managing partner Kira Carstensen. “A self-taught filmmaker and editor with a gifted, intuitive visual sensibility combined with a deep understanding of the absurdity and beauty of the human experience, Naima can capture big moments, atmospheric nuances and high suspense with breathtaking skill. We are thrilled that Naima has joined us at Merman to launch an extremely promising commercial career.”
Ramos-Chapman’s commercial resume includes directing content for Facebook, Instagram and a branded film for Louis Vuitton featuring Lauryn Hill. An experienced dancer and former student of the Alvin Ailey School of Dance in New York, Ramos-Chapman deploys dance and movement as a working aesthetic and unique method for directing actors and the camera, as well as a technique for blending body language into the storytelling itself in order to capture feelings and moments that cannot be described in words.
“I’ve had a successful career going from writers rooms to writers rooms starting with Random Acts of Flyness,” said Ramos-Chapman. “Moving forward, my achievements in television and short films can be translated into the commercial space. I’m focused on getting into the kind of commercials that really touch people, that are elegant, that show a different side to things. In particular, I hope to create more content for fashion brands, everything from Louis Vuitton to Burberry to Nike. It’s very exciting and especially exciting to be working with Merman, an amazing company, where I immediately felt a strong connection. I met them a year ago and we kept up the conversation. Having a strong singular voice, it matters to me who I’m talking to and who’s listening. Merman listened. They get it. This is the right partnership at the right time.”
