Yehuda Duenyas Signs with UNIT9
Today, global production company UNIT9 announces the signing of experiential director Yehuda Duenyas, for global commercial and experiential work, effective immediately. The Emmy and Cannes Lions winning director specialises in next-generation entertainment and technology, utilising immersive new media and storytelling to create works for some of the world’s largest brands and major ad agencies.
Duenyas has already debuted his first work as part of UNIT9 - a virtual concert at Intel’s annual conference featuring a motion-capture rendering of globally admired music producer and DJ, Diplo. Created with VMLY&R and Intel, the virtual concert utilises Intel’s new Tiger Lake processor combined with cutting-edge computer-generated imagery, motion capture, and live-action footage to demonstrate how Intel technology allows on-the-go creatives like Diplo to unlock their full creative potential. Duenyas and team pulled from Diplo’s existing DIY digital aesthetic rooted in pop culture references to create his avatar and the accompanying landscape.
“I’m personally so excited to be working with UNIT9 and their incredible roster of talent. We have an enormous opportunity right now to elevate the landscape of engagement, create new markets, cultivate new audiences, and provide fresh content through hybrid mediums - live action, experiential, digital, virtual, social, and beyond." said Yehuda. "UNIT9 leads the industry - they're always pushing the boundaries of digital storytelling, elevating brands to the highest levels of social and technological awareness, bringing the freshest takes on new work, new formats, and new mediums. This is beyond breaking new technologies for the sake of 'cool' tech - the tech is cool, but creating engaging storytelling through technological and digital empathy is the next level of brand engagement. Intersectionality of brand and social identity is where it’s at. Which is all just another way to say we’re super excited to deliver some cool new s#!t.”
Yehuda’s work has online views in the 200+ millions, with over a billion media impressions. He has directed experiences and commercials for brands such as Google/YouTube, INTEL, MGM/UA, the Ad Council, Audi, JetBlue, Weight Watchers, LA Tourism, Dixie, and many more and has worked with leading agencies including R/GA, Droga5 and Mullen/Lowe. Duenyas is best known for the viral 2015 ‘Love Has No Labels’ experience for AdCouncil which showed different examples of love - familial, romantic, interacial, LGBTQIA+, etc - through a screen that hid the actual identity of the individuals involved and depicted them as the equal, undefined skeletons they are underneath.
Michelle Craig, director and creative partner at UNIT9, shared: “We’ve had our eye on Yehuda and his work for a while and we jumped at the opportunity to have him join our team. He has an ability to merge the most valuable aspects of tech into real life or virtual experiences to build immersive worlds that are true to a brand and enjoyable for consumers. His stacked resume proves that he’s one of the hottest directors in our field and we’re lucky to have him on our team rather than on the other side of the pitch!”
In addition to his commercial work, Duenyas spent time working at Walt Disney Imagineering, leaders in innovative and technological storytelling. He was also supervising producer and creative director on YouTube Red’s Fight of the Living Dead (10m+ views online). Outside of his work as an experiential director, he’s a pioneering certified intimacy coordinator helping major studios, stage and small screen directors safely, accurately and comfortably bring intimate scenes to life. He’s currently working on a training program specifically for BIPOC and underrepresented people entering the field.
