Rich Rama: Feeding Creativity
Los Angeles is the city of dreamers, the land of infinite possibility, where creativity collides with opportunity. A colourful playground for makers and doers from around the world, it is the ideal location for creative studio, JANE.
The high-end boutique post and production studio is “the fruition of an idealised dream of youth, transformed into the endeavour of a diverse roster of directors, storytellers, artists, writers and creative collaborators”. As one of the founding members, Rich has helped cultivate JANE’s all-inclusive creative environment.
Over the course of his 20 year career, the executive producer has made waves across multiple disciplines in the commercial space on behalf of Method, Psyop, and Havas. His vast skills and experience play a pivotal part in the intrinsic creative freedom that JANE promotes. Shapeshifting to fit the needs of various aspects of production and post - it’s hard to believe there could be any time left for Rich to pursue extracurricular interests. Right?
Wrong.
As it turns out, the polymath’s achievements span across the advertising industry and into the world of culinary arts, with one common through line connecting everything he does: the reward of curating meaningful experiences.
United Through Food
As a Filipino American growing up in Detroit, Michigan, Rich was surrounded by hearty home-cooked food. From as early as five, he and his three siblings would help prepare Filipino delicacies like his father’s famous ‘lechon’. Looking back, this cooking ritual was a teaching moment – his father bringing him in on the entire process, from farm to table, picking a pig, preparing it and cooking it. Taking turns to man the spit as pork roasted in the family’s backyard, Rich fondly remembers how he would, with great difficulty, attempt to rotate a suckling pig twice the size of his five year old frame. The pay off would be worth it: family and friends huddled together, enjoying the lovingly prepared fruits of his labour.
The ceremonious breaking of bread instilled in him during his childhood taught Rich the joyful payoff of collaboration and would continue to be a source of great joy for him as he explored other creative ventures.
Becoming increasingly aware of his innate proclivity to act as the “connector” in his teenage years, Rich carried his people skills forward into his professional career. Full of ideas, his career in advertising went from strength to strength, working on major brand collaborations with clients such as Nike, Redbull and most recently, AT&T. Having moved to New York, Rich spent his twenties surrounded almost exclusively by friends who either worked in adland or restaurants. Sure enough, the two worlds began to collide.
“Part of the job of an EP is to take clients out. I see it as a chance to support local restaurants while also bringing people together. Plus, ad people love to feel like they’re early adopters!” says Rich.
Sure enough, chef friends started to introduce him to other chefs and, before he knew it, Rich found himself immersed in the industry. “It's kind of funny because some people assume I’m part of the culinary world, others the advertising world – I like to keep people guessing!”
Cooking up New Ideas
With his passion for cooking burning bright, Rich’s ever-expanding network of foodie connections inspired him to launch his own pop up event. The crossover felt very organic for him: a people-person producing what would be the first of many meaningful experiences.
Following the success of his first event - a 90’s inspired RnB and hip hop brunch party - Rich was approached by a fellow colleague who wanted to open a ramen shop. Given where he was in his career, the timing felt serendipitous, so he decided to step away from advertising to launch Ichicoro in 2015.
“Ichicoro got really popular really fast,” he tells us. “By day two of us being open we were written up in the New York Times, then a week later Gwyneth Paltrow put us in Goop.”
At the end of Ichicoro’s successful 8 year run, it had been recognised with a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a huge achievement for any restaurant. More and more, Rich was wondering how he could marry his creative skillset with his flourishing love affair with food.
For years he hastened to add the word ‘creative’ to his title, self conscious that producers are not always thought of as creatives. But “making sh*t happen” is a crucial characteristic of any successful producer and Rich had been proving his creative abilities to get things done for the last decade.
JANE: The Convergence of Creative Passions
When long-time friends and collaborators David Parker and Nancy Nina Hwang invited him to join them and director, Cole Schreiber, as an EP at their new artist-forward boutique studio, Rich felt like he had struck gold. Here was an opportunity to collaborate with like-minded artists, clients and brands in the advertising space, as part of a team that cherished and encouraged every facet of his creativity.
Thrilled to have him on board, the JANE family value Rich’s breadth of industry experience. “One of his greatest strengths is recognising the creative movements of the industry and seeking out ways to connect JANE with strong agencies and brands who want to explore those creative spaces,” says Cole. “Much of this comes from him being a really social person who sees craft, artistry and food as a special formula for bringing folks together.”
Today, Rich has reached an equilibrium that sees him managing his time and energy equally between his two creative callings: executive producer and culinary pioneer. In addition to his executive producing output on projects for Amazon, AT&T, Levi’s and the NBA, working with JANE has allowed him to maintain his culinary ambitions alongside his advertising career. “I was cooking on Twitch during the pandemic, then I started a wine show with JANE’s head of production, Ben Sposato, and division7 co-managing director, Kamila Prokop. And I’ve done pop up dinners under the ‘Wanderrama’ moniker in 12 countries, with the latest in Amsterdam last week.”
Long-time friend and JANE co-founder, David Parker, always envisioned cultivating JANE to be a work culture of valuing creativity over the bottom line. As such, he has loved witnessing Rich’s evolution as a multi-hyphenate. “When Nancy and I founded JANE, we wanted to regain the creative culture that has been lost by some businesses. We do this by supporting artists as they explore their creative endeavours.”
“We're a band of old friends and colleagues who all have our own passions outside of work and we want to stay true to that,” he continues. “Culturally, we all dream of being in a place where people are excited and feel supported.”
“I think Rich views creative projects like dinner parties,” adds Cole. “He enjoys bringing the right mixture of talents and people together, connecting artists, directors and agency creatives which helps energise a project and, ultimately, leads to great work.”
Food certainly brings people together and the simple act of uniting around a dinner table has taught Rich a great deal. “I have the same attitude towards the jobs we take on at JANE as I do with food projects: we are creating an experience for our clients to create the best possible product for consumer consumption.”
Whether he’s in the kitchen or on set, you can bet your bottom dollar that Rich Rama is doing everything in his power to guarantee those around him are feeling inspired and connected.
