RSA’s Hey Wonderful, the integrated commercial production company founded earlier this year by industry veteran and managing director Michael Di Girolamo, has hired Sarah McMurray as staff executive producer. McMurray brings extensive experience as a line producer, working with a cross-section of directing talent including Peking, Eliot Rausch and Augustus Punch.
Among McMurray’s most notable work as a line producer is a series of award-winning commercials for Skype with Peking, Hey Wonderful’s directing duo of Nat Livingston Johnson and Gregory Mitnick. She produced Pereira & O’Dell’s Skype pieces “Stay Together” and “Born Friends” in 2013, which won two Cannes Silver Lions, a One Show Gold Pencil and a multitude of other industry honors, and in 2015 the commercial films, Skype’s “Turning the Tide” and “Pet Detective,” which were honored with an AICP NEXT award for Product Integration. Most recently, McMurray and Peking collaborated on Doritos’ new Rock the Vote commercial via Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Hey Wonderful.
McMurray got her start when she joined Food Chain Films as staff production manager after graduating from Reed College in Portland, Ore. She began line producing for director Vance Malone, and followed his lead, moving to Los Angeles nearly a decade ago. She found her niche freelancing, working with companies such as Hungry Man, Station Film and Partizan, where she produced Sony Xperia’s “Frames,” directed by Punch and winner of a 2013 AICP honor. She also produced commercials and content for Über Content and Brand New School, and continued to work with Malone–their collaborations included the Sundance short, The Poodle Trainer, and the Cannes Cyber Lion-winning series of mini-docs for Coraline via W + K Portland.
“Michael [Di Girolamo] and I have worked together for years and he’s an amazing collaborator,” McMurray said. “I’ve always found the spontaneous and quick nature of line producing invigorating, but when Michael approached me about joining Hey Wonderful and the RSA family, it was an opportunity I couldn’t resist.”
She added, “I was drawn to the combination of Hey Wonderful as a new creative boutique that supports my ethos with the resources of a company like RSA Films which has not only a great pedigree in commercials, but also film, TV, music videos, branded content and VR—it’s the best of all worlds.”
Hey Wonderful’s directorial roster includes Tricia Brock, Sam Cadman, John Dolan, Drake Doremus, Alek Keshishian, Little Village, Peking, Sam Spiegel and Cedric Nicolas-Troyan.
