Neela’s first dip into the creative world began in advertising. At just 19, she left university to pursue an apprenticeship in social media for business at Lumen, a start up ad-tech agency. Within a year, Neela was a digital marketing executive, and by year two she was account managing campaigns for Tesco, Cadbury’s, Lidl & more.
She climbed the ranks quickly in the field, and moved to another agency where she took up the role of Head of Communications. She worked on projects here for Sony Xperia, Google, and Samsung, with a focus on bringing together street art and advertising. Also during this time, Neela founded COZY, which originally started at an online magazine.
Through the magazine, Neela began to develop her photography, graphic design and video skills, interviewing and photographing artists such as Kojey Radical, Xavier Omar, Vic Mensa, Rukhsana Merrise and more. Within a year, COZY became an authority for underground music in London, with regular COZY events and live music showcases at Notting Hill Arts Club, which Neela then went on to take all over the world, coordinating and programming events in New York & Los Angeles on a regular basis.
At this point, having made a wide variety of connections across the advertising and music / event space, Neela was offered a job at XL Recordings & Young Turks, where she became Head of Communications & Curation Manager at just 23, working closely with artists such as Adele, Sampha, Kaytranada, Ibeyi, Giggs, FKA Twigs & more to create album rollout strategies with a specific focus on social media and curation.
Neela played a crucial role in both Sampha’s Mercury Award Prize winning album ‘Process’ and The xx’s ‘I See You’ which was #1 in the UK.
Using her photography and video skills, Neela not only built on strategy but executed it, creating music videos for Sampha, and content for social media for The xx to name a few.
As a photographer and director, Neela worked on national campaigns with In Bloom, including producing video content for Channel 4 and Eurostar.
In 2017, Neela made her directorial debut with a music video for artist Denai Moore, which premiered on the Fader. Since then, Neela has signed to Academy Films and is represented internationally. Her most recent film project was a music documentary called ‘Everything Is Recorded’, on the Mercury Prize nominated album which debuted on Boiler Room’s 4:3 platform, her most recent photography project was a shoot for Raveena for the cover of Gal-Dem’s print magazine.
Neela currently consults through COZY on a freelance basis for various clients, including the Tate Modern, where she has assisted them in catering to their POC audience.
Projects
- Everything Is Recorded DocumentaryDirected by CHILD and Mahaneela, the film features exclusive interviews with project leader Richard Russell and his collaborators, unseen behind-the-scenes footage of the recording sessions (featuring Baluji Shrivastav, Ben Reed, Giggs, Green Gartside, Ibeyi, Infinite Coles, Joe Brown, Lil C, Mela Murder, Nubya Garcia, Obongjayar, Peter Gabriel, Sampha, Tic, Wiki, Yazz Ahmed and Richard Russell) and a cinematic documentation of their debut live shows. "The whole idea of collaboration is not re
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Projects credited in
- Nike - Come Thru (FILM)“Come Thru” is a Nike original YouTube series created by women, celebrating Black Women in the world of sports, social activism, business and music. I directed three episodes and closed out season 1 of this never been filmed before show in the middle of the global pandemic. Three guests and our host Nia Simone were filmed in different locations across America and despite that distance, we did the impossible and captured real connection, vulnerability and authentic conversation. Unearthing nuanc
- Dropbox: Call For CollaborationCall for Collaboration is a partnership between It’s Nice That & Dropbox project connecting creatives from across the world to collaborate on fun, fully commissioned projects, using Dropbox Paper as a tool for collaboration across a range of creative disciplines. We ran a total of 6 of these projects, collaborating with María Medem, Élise Rigollet, FISK, Ruohan Wang, Kelly Anna, Josie Tucker, Mahaneela, Lunga Ntila, Actual Source, Margot Lévêque, Julian Glander & Sofia Johnston. Link to projec
- 'Get Your Glow' Becca Cosmetics X ASOS launch campaignASOS x Becca is a fully fledged beauty story of inner and outer glow. Including IG TV episode with influencers Kicki Yang Zhang, Jordan Charles and Mahaneela Choudhury-Reid sharing their 'glow stories' wearing incredible makeup looks created by globally renowned Nikki Wolff. Within the first week of launch, Becca sales on ASOS hit 104% over forecast alongside huge social engagement levels on ASOS social channels and across influencer channels.
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Skills
- Advertising
- Events
- Marketing PR
- Art Direction
- Copywriting
- Creative
- Proofreading
- Indesign
- Photoshop
- Final Cut Pro
Education
C
C
Social Media for BusinessCity and Guilds of London Art School
- London, United Kingdom
Social Media for Business
H
H
PhilosophyHeythrop College, University of London
- London, United Kingdom
Philosophy
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