The Cavalry Productions Signs Comedy Director Kiran Koshy

The Cavalry Productions has signed Kiran (Kiran Koshy), one of the breakout commercial directorial talents of the past year. Kiran’swork for Organic Doggie Treats and Atomic Candy, all directed in-house whilst a creative director at Innocean Worldwide, won him a BronzeClio, a pair of LIA statues, multiple Epicas, a Gold National Addy, and got him featured in SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase.

He made the Best New Director shortlists at the Kinsale Shark Awards, the LIAs, and was featured in Shots, Adweek, and the New Talent section of Little BlackBook, all while an unsigned agency creative.

Kiran’s award-winning campaigns caught the eye of Tanya Cohen and Ross Grogan, who contacted Kiran after viewing his work at last year’s SHOOT New Directors Showcase. Cohen says, "Kiran’s fresh and inspiring comedy style combines a visual edge and distinct look, with nuanced and subtle performances, in addition to his flawless comedic timing. His approach is comedy gold. He's also really adept with working with animals, (stuffed or living), which probably comes from his intimate relationships with his many pet squirrels, and from his family, which includes an uncle who once owned an elephant.

Kiran’s path to becoming a comedy director was a bit unconventional. He was raised in India earning degrees in Economics and Public Administration, and dabbling as a cartoonist on the side. He abandoned his plans of becoming a tenured bureaucrat for a career in advertising, as an art director after meeting a Creative Director at Ogilvy. After successful stints at Ogilvy and Saatchi in India, Kiran landed in Texas at The Richards Group, where he worked on everything from Fiat, winning Best Car Commercial in 2013 at the Paris Auto Show, to Summers Eve, and developed his unique sense of visual comedy. “Coming from a culture that believes in assaulting your senses at every turn, I’ve learnt to value subtlety, timing, and tone a great deal,” says Kiran.

Comedy and music are often universal and defy stereotypical demographics. Kiran has the unique ability of using comedic timing that relates toand touches audiences from vastly different worlds. He has a strong male voice that can easily relate to women and men. In his campaign forSummers Eve, directed by Jeremy Bartel, “That’s Vaginal”, he put a spotlight on the double standard between men and women’s parts beingvoiced on television. Using a cat puppet and turning the word “Vaginal” into the new awesome. In this campaign, like many others, he drawsthe audience in with his wit and keeps them involved by encouraging them to participate.

Kiran understand the power of social media in today’s world and in this campaign created a twitter for the cat puppet. In recent campaigns like his Wes Anderson style spot for the Thousand Dollar Shave Club, he received 7.3 million views on YouTube and created a contest in which the viewer could win a trophy for procreating. Kiran has worked with acclaimed directors like Danny Kleinman, Brian Beletic Aaron Stoller, Frederik Bond, Martin Krejci, and Mike McGuire. His print campaign for Atomic Candy featuring the Presidential Election which now take permanent residency at the Poster House in NYC completely dedicated to posters, opening in 2019.

While in Texas, Kiran began revitalising the advertising program at his alma mater, Texas A&M Commerce, with many students soon finding careers at places like Goodby,, RGA, David, Amazon, and The Richards Group. “I find great joy mentoring young talent and seeing them succeed, and I still teach remotely from LA,” he says. It’s also where he started directing, working with his students on a project for the Student OneShow. They won Gold. Kiran took that as an omen, and started working on a directorial reel. From there a move to LA, and Innocean, felt natural. His directorial debut for the Thousand Dollar Shave Society made it into the Communication Arts Ad Annual, and was recognised by the Adweek Watch Awards, One Show, One Screen, Graphis, and New York Festivals.

While he’s going to miss the agony and ecstasy of the agency creative birthing process, he’s eager to play doula and collaborate with creative teams to push and deliver their ideas. “Comedy is an unpredictable thing and you have to entertain everything, which makes collaboration, and spontaneity, key. If you’re not laughing together on set, it’s probably not going to be funny in the cut.” Kiran most recently wrapped an AT&T campaign for BBDO, through The Cavalry Productions.