More Media Signs Comedy Director Amber Schaefer

Los Angeles-based production company More Media adds comedic powerhouse Amber Schaefer to its lineup of directors.

Amber Schaefer splits her time between LA and New York, and spreads her talent between producing, writing, acting, and directing ads, branded content, sketches, shorts, and experiential campaigns. After graduating from Marlboro College with a degree in Political Theory, Schaefer spent years honing her comedic chops at the Upright Citizens Brigade, the Magnet Theater, and running a weekly stand-up show called Sunday Roast at legendary LES haunt Max Fish. Yet she says she knew stand-up comedy wasn’t her because she “loves art direction and cinematography too much. Nothing makes me happier than nailing a joke through camera movement.”

Known as a director who can create comedy in the details of purposeful art direction, cinematography, music, and wardrobe, she spent eight years making meaningful content for some of the world’s biggest artists and brands, from Sam Smith to Google, from Eric Andre to Levi’s. While she previously worked as a freelance copywriter for clients like Toyota, Ford, Microsoft, American Express, Giphy, Expedia, Red Bull, Maybelline, United Airlines, and AT&T, More Media is Schaefer’s first official representation as a director.

It was Schaefer’s writing and acting that originally put her on the company’s radar, after fulfilling both roles for a Smartwater spot directed by More Media’s Ben Berman. EP Blaize Saunders said that upon meeting Schaefer, he knew her gift was special. “The type of work she was doing resonated with me - most people can’t nail her style of comedy. It’s irreverent and unique, I knew in my gut that she would be big.”  

Saunders called it. Schaefer knocked it out of the park with her recent Geico campaign for The Martin Agency, her first directing gig with More Media. The campaign in question is a series of absurdly funny snapshots that satirise Geico ads in a meta way, and which end with a wild-eyed, bearded man revealing himself to maniacally declare, “This IS a Geico commercial.” Schaefer’s knack for timing and absurdity are perfectly matched for a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Schaefer describes the project as a dream come true, saying, “Geico was brave and open to making some truly weird work. The agency, the brand, the entire team was so well-aligned, we just kept adding and adding to the project - it was a real collaboration.”

More Media CEO/Executive Producer Stephen Buchanan remarks, “When you stumble upon a unicorn like Amber, it’s easy to create amazing work. She is infectious…and just damn funny. Her work mirrors her completely left-of-centre approach, and how she is always deliberate - and deliberately funny - in her decisions.”

Scahefer says she knew she’d found the type of representation she desired with More Media, because they see her as a three-dimensional creative. Schaefer explains, “They get it—I’m a comedy director. It’s not gender-specific. They put me up for stuff that is genuinely funny, and not gender-determined.”

On top of that, Schaefer is drawn to More Media’s collective-like environment. She says, “I’m a natural-born collaborator. That’s why I prefer improv over stand-up, because you’re creating these worlds together. More Media feels like the perfect place to continue doing that work.”