We The Grimshaws: How These Spousal Superstars Direct the Beautiful, Weird and Funny
We The Grimshaws is a directing duo comprised of Craig Brownrigg and Brenna Horrocks, brought together by a curious mix of fate and poultry-themed cross stitch. Now, they’re partners in all things creative and life.
Craig's directed a boatload of award winning, hilarious commercials for everyone from Progressive to McDonalds to Amazon. Meanwhile, Brenna began her career as an award-winning agency creative at Arnold. She’s been freelance copywriting and designing for major brands ever since. Oh, and she's also a published poet and essayist too.
Brenna and Craig have joined forces to create We The Grimshaws, combining Craig’s signature grounded, comedic tone with a laser focused eye for detail, a graphic visual style, and their very own playful brand of weirdness.
We the Grimshaws are represented by FRANK Content in Canada, Ruckus Films in the US, and HunkyDory Films in the UK.
We the Grimshaws are represented by FRANK Content in Canada, Ruckus Films in the US, and HunkyDory Films in the UK.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with the pair to learn about all this and more, discussing their history, directorial styles, and where they aim to go in 2023 and beyond.
LBB> How did you two start working together? Please tell us your stories!
Craig> We started working together about seven years ago. Back then, Brenna was a writer at an agency in New York, and I was already directing. From the first day we met, we got along really well and immediately started plotting ways to work together. At some point, we thought it would be a great idea and not complicate things at all if we started dating. So we went ahead and did that. Amazingly, our work got stronger and we still kind of like each other, so yay.
LBB> What were your first impressions of each other, how have they changed, and why do you think you complement each other?
Craig> My first impression of Brenna was how giant her hands were - which are breathtakingly large for the record. Aside from that, I knew right away she was a great writer, incredibly smart, and had this weird sense of very (very) dark humour which I found super funny. She was one of the most interesting people I had ever met, so at first I just wanted to be around her and hear her crazy stories. She’s also annoyingly nice and incredibly kind. Everyone likes her way better than they like me.
My impression hasn’t changed that much because my first impression proved to be correct - although the humour is way darker than I thought it was at first. Getting to know where that dark humour came from was the really fun part. Her background and upbringing is like no story you or anyone has ever heard. And I realised this story is what makes her mind so interesting - and what makes her work so unique.
We complement each other because we come at our creative solutions from two very opposite places. We have all of these very disparate ideas that eventually weave themselves together into something that is perfect for the project.
Brenna> My first impression of Craig was that he had really terrible hair. I mean, it was truly awful. And, to make it worse, I could tell he sort of secretly thought it was cool or something. Once we started working together, I realised how funny he was, and that I could probably get over his hair.
For sure, Craig is one of the best storytellers I know (though you can be sure each ramble is slathered in a thick layer of bullshit). I am certain I knew Craig’s uncle Jimmy was an alcoholic fireman who immigrated to Montreal from Scotland and used to fall asleep at family gatherings with a cigarette still burning between his teeth before I even knew Craig’s last name. With that said, I am told there is no bullshit to this story.
Finally, I’d add that Craig’s ability to find comedy in the most mundane landscapes and absurd realities of life certainly offsets my ‘dark sense of humour’.
LBB> Where did the name ‘We The Grimshaws’ come from? How did you settle on it, and what made it perfect for you?
Craig> We’re very glad you asked. Brenna once showed me a grainy photo of this old guy wearing a pottery smock and told me it was her ‘Great Grandpa Grimshaw’. I was astounded at the awesomeness of it. Then, she told me his first name was Duckworth… which made the whole thing even more awesome. I immediately started using the phrase ‘Great Grampa Grimshaw!!!’ as a noun, a verb and an adjective. Believe me, it applies to pretty much any situation. And requires lots of exclamation points if typing it.
Brenna> So, when it came time to pick a name for our new directing duo, we wanted something that spoke to who we are as directors, but also the things that are important to who we are as people. And we certainly didn’t want to use our last names since ‘Horrocks’ and ‘Brownrigg’ are both terrible.
Craig> So, we decided to drive to Las Vegas and not leave until we came up with a name. On the first night, we hit it big on the ‘Karate Kid’ slot machine and naturally, I yelled out ‘Great Grampa Grimshaw!!!’ at our $78 winnings, and just like that, the answer landed in our laps.
We dropped the ‘Great Grampa’ for what we assume are obvious reasons, and decided to go with ‘We The Grimshaws’ instead.
Brenna> Yeah, long story short, on top of being a strange word, Grimshaw is a family name. And when you team up with us, you become a part of the family - a functional one, that happens to make beautiful, weird and funny films.
LBB>Tell us about your styles! How would you describe them, and how do you blend them together to form your creative approach?
Craig> In some ways, like the twisted humour Brenna is always trying to sneak in, our styles differ. But, we believe that makes the work infinitely more interesting overall. My style is much more loose - I go with my gut and sort of make stuff up as I go along. I look at things through a comedy, performance and storytelling filter first. Supposedly, I mumbled ‘How can we make this funnier’ in my sleep once. I still don’t believe that’s a true story, but if it was, I’m terrified to think of the dream I was having at the time.
Brenna is way more of a thinker, and really gets down into the details of everything. She’s more meticulous and thoughtful about pretty much everything - art direction, colour palettes, shot lists, framings etc. Her comedic instincts are super sharp, and like a lot of great writers, she takes the time to craft the perfect line, where I usually just yell out whatever stupid thing pops into my head. She’s clearly much smarter than I am. But my hair is nicer, so I’ve got that going for me.
As a bonus, she’s American and I’m Canadian, so there’s that. We live in LA now, but I still use celsius and the metric system just to annoy her.
LBB> What is the greatest appeal of working in a team, and what were some of the most important lessons you’ve learned as part of this process?
Brenna> It feels put-on to say, but we have a tonne of fun doing this job. Yesterday, we were in our backyard pretending to be on a moving sidewalk to see if an idea was plausible.
Craig> We assume most people probably think it would be terrible to work this closely with the person they are in a relationship with. But for us, it’s actually been the exact opposite. We genuinely like hanging out together and that sentiment translates to our directing partnership.
With that said, the most important lesson we’ve learned during this process is that we need to turn off work at some point every day. This job is all-consuming at times, and as a team who lives together, we could talk about it non stop if we didn’t make a conscious effort to stop.
LBB> What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve had to overcome as a team, and how did having a partner make this easier?
Craig> The greatest challenge we’ve had to overcome is not getting stuck in an old way of thinking and approach to comedy. Partnering up as a duo was a new start for both of us. Brenna brought so much new, interesting thinking, and a whole new visual approach to my directing world. Since I had been directing a bit longer, I had a way I sort of did everything - without even realising I was doing it. The work was funny and things were going well, so it didn’t occur to me to even consider a new perspective.
When we teamed up, she immediately broke me out of that mould, which was very freeing and inspiring. The challenge was to not default back to the old way of thinking, which is an easy trap to fall into when things are busy and moving fast. You don’t even realise it's happening until it's over.
Brenna> He’s giving me too much credit. I’ve always been a fan of Craig’s work, and teaming up felt like a no brainer.
LBB> What are your goals as directors, both for 2023 and beyond?
Craig> Our goals in 2023 are to work with nice people on funny stuff. Our goals beyond that are the exact same. We love our jobs, we love funny scripts, and even more than that, we love collaborating with the creatives who write them.
Brenna> Not sure if this is a goal, but, I look forward to bringing a female perspective to the work we do. I believe there is a real opportunity to increase representation of female and queer filmmakers in the industry.
