Director Lara Everly Joins Backyard For Spots, Branded Content
Lara Everly
  • LOS ANGELES
  • --

Backyard Productions has added director Lara Everly to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. This marks her first such production company representation. She has worked with a mix of clients ranging from family-centric brands Fisher Price, Little Tikes and Walmart to advocacy brands including the ACLU, Supermajority and Swing Left.

Hailing from a comedy background and a graduate of Upright Citizens Brigade, Everly honed her ability to inject humor into unexpected topics, which is demonstrated in her reel of work. Her early career as an actress on hit U.S. sitcoms (That 70’s Show, Silicon Valley, Rules of Engagement and 2 Broke Girls, to name a few) saw her arrival into the sketch comedy space where she went on to write and direct comedic and youth-centric spots for a range of platforms including FunnyorDie, College Humor, Refinery29, Disney, Netflix Family, Scary Mommy, Oprah, Awestruck, Swing Left, Acronym, and Babycenter.

Everly’s passion for directing both short and long form content, combined with her sharp wit and clever comedy sensibility have won her a lot of recognition. Her narrative films and documentaries have garnered numerous accolades playing the film festival circuit, including winning awards and procuring distribution through Amazon, ShortsHD and New Wave Entertainment. Everly’s comedic docu-series, Wags to Riches, recently won an impressive nine Telly awards, including two for directing.

A highlight of her career was directing actress and activist Geena Davis in a comedy pilot presentation entitled I Can By Friday. Not only inspired by Davis’ performances in iconic films (Beetlejuice, A League of Their Own, Thelma and Louise) while growing up, but also admiring the actress’ continuous efforts in championing gender equality in media, Everly views the series collaboration as most memorable. The premise of I Can By Friday is to show Davis mastering a new skill in five days--the actress learned how to play the marching drums for the pilot.

Staying true to her love of creating female-driven content, Everly has directed a Netflix comedic docu-series, entitled Like a Mother, which shines a light on all working moms in male dominated careers. The series profiles a mom astronaut, firefighter, captain and a doctor. Continuing her streak of working with the streaming platform, Everly also directed a spot for Netflix called “Motherhood in Focus” that was an anthemic love letter to moms in the entertainment industry which garnered an impressive 17 million views online.

Everly is about to release her latest film project which she wrote and directed called Heritage Day, starring Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi Wan Kenobi). Based on her own childhood experiences, the film demonstrates Everly’s ability to use comedy as a driving tool when portraying hard hitting subjects on screen. She is also in the current class for NBCU Launch Directors Program and is about to direct TV sitcom American Auto.

Everly said, “I’m serious about comedy and was drawn to the comedy spots on Backyard’s roster. I love the grounded humor that is the zeitgeist in advertising right now. So many spots these days are their own narrative ride and it’s such a rad sandbox for directors.  I’ve been directing branded content on my own accord, and I’m ecstatic to join Backyard. This is a relationship and partnership I’ve been super keen to create and I’m stoked to be here.”

Rich Schafler, head of sales at Backyard, commented, “Lara is an exceptionally talented filmmaker with a true passion for directing both short and long form content. She excels in several genres and brings years of experience in the arts emanating from her early career as an actor. Backyard always strives to work with emerging talent with a real point of view, and a desire to grow as artists. We seek to work with directors who want to embrace new challenges and push the envelope creatively.”

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