Rakish has signed director Albert Uria to its roster for U.S. representation as it nears its one-year anniversary. Barcelona-born and raised and now L.A.-based, Uria has directed for brands such as Coca-Cola, Audi, Toyota, Axe, McDonald’s, Nike, Ferrari, Corona, Volkswagen, Ikea and State Farm. Recently, he directed several episodes of the forthcoming TNT & HBO MAX television series “La Muchacha Que Limpia,” which begins airing in March. Uria is the founder of  Garage Films, which represents him in Spain, Latin America and the Hispanic market in the U.S. He is also repped by The Family in Italy, Mad Cow in the U.K., Bandits in France and Nicholad Berglund in several markets.

Girl Culture Films, the production company launched a year ago by director Lauren Greenfield, is launching an entertainment arm. It will initially work on two fictional series as well as a non-fiction Greenfield project. The company is also adding two new directors: two-time Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple, and Sundance Grand Jury award-winning and DGA-nominated filmmaker Nanfu Wang (“One Child Nation”).

Brooklyn-based production company Tinygiant has added South African director Chloe Coetsee to its roster. Coetsee began her directing career shooting music videos, then landed a short documentary series for the Discovery Channel, while her commercials include the #YouPeople campaign for Nando’s with M&C Saatchi Abel, which tackled unconscious biases through humor. Her awards include Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, a Webby and Clios.

Brand New School has appointed Gerald Mark Soto to its New York studio in the role of animation director. Soto has worked on design, animation, and direction for commercial, experiential, broadcast, and film projects  over the last 20 years, for brands including Nike, American Express, The New York Times, Samsung, Squarespace, Apple and Google. He recently led the Brand New School animation team for Google’s CES 2020 presence, which included a 70-foot tall custom-built screen headlining the Google Playground. 

New York-based film and content studio Bindery has promoted Carter Collins to partner, executive producer. Collins, who joined Bindery in 2015, will lead Bindery’s direct-to-brand offering, which accounts for 70 percent of the business. He oversees strategy, creative and production for DTC sock brand Bombas which has led to more work for DTC brands including Brooklinen, Birchbox, Stitch Fix, Myro, Etsy, SeatGeek and Verishop.

MPC has appointed Gregory Roekens to the newly created position of chief innovation officer. Roekens joins the company’s global senior management team reporting to CEO Mark Benson. He previously held the title of future technology officer at Grey Europe; prior to that he was chief technology officer at AMV BBDO and Wunderman and previously worked at IBM.