Kerstin Emhoff brings over 15 years of commercial and film production to her role as President and Co-Founder of Prettybird. She has produced national and international commercials, short films, television, web content and music videos and helped shape the careers of many award-winning commercial and music video directors working today. 

Raised in Minneapolis, Emhoff earned her degree in film from Boston University and moved to Los Angeles. Finding work with top directors and production companies, Emhoff quickly gained a reputation as a producer in the freelance commercial production field. 

In 1996, Emhoff signed on as an Executive Producer for HSI Productions, a top commercial and music video production company. Emhoff spent 11 years at HSI producing celebrated campaigns for brands like Nike, Coca Cola, Burger King, VW and Gap, among others. Emhoff worked with many acclaimed directors including current partner and Prettybird Co-Founder Paul Hunter, as well as Sam Bayer, Peggy Sirota, David LaChappelle, Matthew Rolston, Jonas Akerlund, Josh Taft, Peter Berg and Michael Haussman. 

By 2007, Emhoff was a VP at HSI and under her leadership won numerous national and international awards including several Cannes Lions, One Show's Golden Pencil, AICP Awards, and Creativity Magazine's Production Company of the Year. She also opened their office in London and oversaw all three offices in Los Angeles, New York and London. She has produced and developed numerous new media projects, as well as a television pilot for the Fox Network.

Emhoff continues this high level of production and creative development with Prettybird clients Burger King, Covergirl, and Adidas—as well as award-winning campaigns for Audi and Rexona. More recently, she has produced a live web series for Microsoft and CPB. And in 2009, Emhoff co-executive produced the critically acclaimed feature-length documentaries, Sergio and The Tillman Story, both of which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. She looks forward to working with new and established directors, writers and producers, and is currently developing several projects for TV and new media.

Emhoff has served on the Association of Independent Commercial Producers Board for over 10 years and is currently serving a second term as AICP/West President. 

Prettybird Co-Founder, Paul Hunter is one of the most recognizable and influential directors working today. His name is synonymous with an inventive and diverse style, which continues to set new standards for commercials and music videos.

A native Californian, Hunter graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in Radio, TV & Film. His first professional directing gig was a $5000 music video financed by a friend. Since then Hunter has directed over a hundred commercials and music videos and is among an elite group of directors who can seamlessly cross all music genres from Rap, R&B, Hip-Hop to Rock. He has worked with such legendary artists as Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Madonna and U2.  His music videos for Justin Timberlake, Will Smith, Gwen Stefani, Marilyn Manson, Lenny Kravitz, Christine Aguilera, and Jennifer Lopez among others have been awarded and consistently nominated by MTV, MVPA, Billboard and more.

Hunter made his mark in the commercial world with a highly praised spot for Nike “Freestyle” in 2001. “Freestyle” was nominated for an Emmy and won numerous awards from AICP, One Show and D&AD. Continuing his success with Nike, Hunter's “Stickman” campaign won a Gold Lion at Cannes in 2004. Hunter's spot for Burger King “Stuff of Legends” was awarded a 2007 Bronze Lion in Cannes and his JC Penney “Beautiful” was also honored for production at the 2007 AICP Show. More recently, Hunter directed award-winning campaigns for Audi and Rexona.

He shot his first print campaign in 2008 for Playboy Fragrance and continues to shoot print along with TV on several campaigns. Hunter has also worked in new media on several campaigns including the Adidas “Brotherhood” series of webisodes, which he developed, shot and directed. In 2010, Hunter continues his foray into the music world, executive producing multiplatform projects for celebrated artists J-Lo and Rihanna.

Hunter is one of the few directors who continues to have repeated campaigns for well-known brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Burger King, Gap, Pepsi, Rexona and VW. It is his skillful ability to show genre diversity as he moves easily from music driven visual concepts to storytelling to humor that makes Hunter a highly sought after talent among clients and agencies. 

Under the Prettybird banner, Hunter is writing and developing several feature film scripts, including the semi-autobiographical tale Government Cheese. Continuing his demand as a commercial director, Hunter is currently finishing projects for Barclaycard, UPS, and Sprite. 

Ali is an Executive Producer at Prettybird, bringing over a decade of experience in a wide range of media in both the development and production arenas.   

Born in Chicago, Ali graduated with distinction from Stanford University before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film.  She soon landed a position at Atlas Pictures, a well-established commercial and music video company. 

While working at Atlas as Staff Production Manager, Ali had the opportunity to work on a short film for Disney that was being directed by Forest Whitaker.  Whitaker quickly offered her a position at his own company, Spirit Dance Entertainment, which had an overhead deal with Fox.  Ali would ultimately become the Director of Creative Affairs, responsible for developing projects with Whitaker to direct and produce, as well as working on production for his directorial feature projects.  

After several years at Spirit Dance, Ali landed back in the commercial world as Head of Production at Mirror Films where she worked on campaigns for clients like Anheuser Busch, Nestle, and Ford, and oversaw the creative development and production of a multi-million dollar IMAX ride film.  From Mirror, she made the move to Prettybird – welcoming the opportunity to work with Emhoff and her talented roster and staff.

As Executive Producer, Ali looks forward to figuring out a way to infuse the words Creative and Integrated into her title.  

Jay Foster is heading the new print division at Prettybird.  His goal is to seek out and build a roster of talented photographers to collaborate with, support and satisfy the advertising, editorial and entertainment print media appetite.

He brings over 20 years of print production to the table.  His climbing through the photography ranks working as a photo assistant, studio manager, producer and now as a print rep has been an invaluable experience and is an asset to the creative talents at ad agencies, clients and magazines.   

Jay is a graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography.   

Mike Rosen is Development Producer at Prettybird responsible for developing and co-creating feature-length film, TV and documentary projects as well as commercials for television and the Internet.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Rosen graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Film Studies. While at U.C.S.B., Rosen interned at Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Picture Company and the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

After graduation, Rosen joined HSI Productions as a full-time creative assistant to resident HSI filmmaker Paul Hunter. Under Hunter's guidance, Rosen took a hands-on role in developing numerous film scripts including GOVERNMENT CHEESE, as well as co-developing concepts for a variety of commercials and music videos. Rosen was also responsible for writing treatments and assisting on visual research.

As Development Producer with Prettybird, Rosen continues to develop and write numerous feature film scripts along with concepts for television, web and commercial projects.