Ep.29 w/Director Nicholas Lam

LA based by way of Hong Kong and Hawaii, Nicholas is one of the most acclaimed Asian American advertising directors working today. His keen sense of beauty in the imperfect, and prioritizing real locations over builds, has resulted in international campaigns for brands like Google, Samsung, Vivo, P&G, Nestlé, Timberland, Disney, Viacom and Dewars. Known for his refined yet gritty visual grammar and a style that combines emotional spontaneity with formal technique, this impactful balance of contradictions has attracted global agencies as BBDO, Ogilvy, Dentsu, Publicis, VMLY&R and Iris Worldwide,
creating campaigns awarded by the Cannes Lions, CLIOs, Promax, Tellys, 1.4, Citra Pariwara, MMA Smarties APAC, Shots and more. His work has been profiled in The LA Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, The Telegraph, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Complex, Maxim and Forbes among others.

In the music world, Nicholas has directed videos for Nick Jonas, Blink-182, Sara Bareilles, Bastille, Divine, Salvatore Ganacci, Elton John, Jess Glynne and Monsta X, for which he remains the first and only American to ever receive an MTV VMA nomination for Best K-Pop Video.

Leveraging his background across continents with his passion to push culture forward, he also serves on the Board of Directors for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce LA, advising their media division, and was selected as the 2023 Next Generation Leader by the Committee of 100, an elite non-partisan organization comprised of the most prominent Chinese Americans in the arts, business, government and academia.

When not on set, Nicholas can be found carving the canyons in his race car or motorcycle, traveling the world hunting crazy street food, or talking fashion and anime with fellow ‘heads.