Bicoastal production company ArtClass has hired Rebecca Niles as executive producer. She brings deep global production experience spanning advertising, branded content, and feature films. At ArtClass, Niles will oversee productions, manage creative teams, and nurture client relationships, working closely with co-founder/executive producer Geno Imbriale, executive producer Kate Aspell and head of sales Jack Strachan.
Prior to joining ArtClass, Niles produced a number of projects with the company, including commercials and digital content for Pantene, ESPN, State Farm, Kellogg’s, and ServiceNow. For the latter, she produced a remote campaign in March–just at the start of lockdown–followed by a second campaign in July, which was among the earliest union productions to return to set in Los Angeles following the rollback of California’s stay-at-home orders.
Niles has worked with a wide range of brands throughout her career as a producer–from tech innovators like Spotify and Instagram, to digital publishing pioneers like Complex Networks, to legacy brands like Versace, Verizon and Nike. Along the way, she has collaborated with big-name artists like Billie Eilish, Eminem, and Dr. Dre.
Niles also brings a long-form content pedigree into the fold, having produced TV, web, and docu-series, such as Sneaker Shopping, Hot Ones, and Magnum Opus.
Prior to joining ArtClass, Niles was EP at Derby; line producer at Complex Networks; and head of production at The Big Picture Company.
James Earl Jones, Lauded Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies At 93
James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, "The Lion King" and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of "The Gin Game" having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
"The need to storytell has always been with us," he told The Associated Press then. "I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him."
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams," the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit "The Great White Hope," the writer Alex Haley in "Roots: The Next Generation" and a South African minister in "Cry, the Beloved Country."
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader ("No, I am your father," commonly misremembered as "Luke, I am your father"), as... Read More