This Hollywood Producer Is Finally Talking About His Secret Agency

For years, Microsoft’s most emotional and engaging ads—specifically, inspirational Super Bowl spots celebrating tech’s impact on people’s lives such as “Empowering Us All” (2014) and “Braylon O’Neill” (2015)—had an element of mystery. At the time of their release, Microsoft had credited “in-house” talent. But now, the mastermind behind the ad is talking.

Andrew Panay, a feature film producer of hits like Wedding Crashers and Van Wilder, founded creative agency BLK-Ops in 2012 to tackle a challenge given to him by Microsoft—condense memorable cinema into 60-second spots, which was above and beyond his production of an energetic film for Microsoft Surface.