NICHOLAS DUCASSI
¡Bienvenidos! I’m Nicholas (Nick) Ducassi, a Miami-bred trilingual (English/Spanish/Spanglish) creative producer, director and writer with over a decade of experience creating digital, short-form and branded content for The Los Angeles Times, Netflix, HBO, The Plantain and more.
I love big ideas, crave a challenge, and whether I’m working with a million-dollar budget or twenty dollars and a Cuban sandwich, I always find a way.
Creative Producer
As an Audience Editor within the L.A. Times Entertainment & Arts section, I wear four distinct hats: Creative Producer, Editor, Reporter, and Social Strategist. My work for The Times has been viewed over 200 million times (including 100 million video views) and earned award nominations from the Television Academy (“The Envelope Actresses Roundtable”) and the Los Angeles Press Club (“Just One Question: If Women Ran Hollywood”), among others. Watch my latest piece here.
As a creative producer, I conceive, develop, produce and publish multiple social video series.
As a reporter, I write and report stories about Film, Television, Music, Arts and beyond. I’ve interviewed artists at the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Sundance and beyond. A few favorites: Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Eva Longoria, Seth Meyers, America Ferrera, Henry Winkler, Helen Mirren and Method Man.
As a social strategist, I revolutionized the @latimes_entertainment Instagram account, leading to a 60x increase in reach, a 200% increase in followers YOY, and over 2 billion impressions during my tenure.
I produced the most-viewed piece of content ever published by The Times. It’s the Times' first truly viral video (and you’ll never guess what it is).
“Jess & Julissa will bring you the latest on what they're watching, pop culture chisme, comedy sketches, and fan advice.”
Creative Director
Go Off Seasons 1 & 2: Head Writer, Director, Producer, Editor
In 2021, Netflix, its Con Todo vertical, and The Light NYC tapped myself and my creative partner Adriana DeGirolami to create “Go Off With Jess & Julissa,” a new digital comedy show starring Jess Marie Garcia (On My Block) and Julissa Calderon (Gentefied). From writing and directing to producing and editing, we made 30 sketches over 12 hilarious episodes and catapulted seasons one and two of Go Off to millions of views across Netflix and Con Todo’s YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok channels.
Shot entirely on green screen, Go Off combines thousands of original and pre-existing content assets from the vast Netflix library to deliver lightning-fast, visually dazzling comedy shorts and sketches that promoted (and roasted!) Netflix’s films, series, and the streaming platform itself.
Designed for virality and shareability, the series and its sketch cutdowns enjoyed 25+ million views across Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and TikTok Live.
Promoted titles including Stranger Things, Bridgerton, You, Money Heist (La Casa de Papel), and Selling Sunset.
Sketch and short formats include trailer and commercial parodies, character sketches, 2-D animations
I co-led a creative team of over 75 writers, production crew, and post-production crew.
Trailers Seasons 1 & 2
Fun Fact! Every frame of Go Off was filmed on green screen to ensure its flexibility in both edit and distribution.
Platform-Optimized Creation
In addition to launching full episodes of Go Off on Netflix’s Youtube channels, each sketch was intended to be self-contained and optimized for virality and digital distribution across Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Therefore, every sketch was edited and released in 16:9, 1:1, and 9:16 aspect ratios.
A Few Favorite Sketches:
As one of two showrunners for “Go Off,” I co-led a writing team of eight comedy writers to pen all thirty of the sketches below:
Season 2
Season 1
Creative Director & Producer
“The Plantain is brilliant at helping South Florida laugh at itself.” -The Miami Herald
"If you've ever been disappointed that the Onion isn't satirizing a super-specific L.A. frustration, The Avocado is here for you.”
Los Angeles & Miami
As a co-founder of The Avocado and the Head of Digital Content for both The Avocado and The Plantain, I managed all operations, business development, partnerships and strategy across our websites and social platforms. I also served as the Producer and Copywriter of all Editorial, Branded, and Social videos, including copywriting, scriptwriting, editing, and distribution.
Over three years, using short-form videos, memes, direct engagement, and animated plantains and espresso makers, I built out The Plantain’s online footprint and led its growth from a nascent satirical website to a digitally savvy publication with an inspired, informed, and 20-times-larger audience. Along the way, we helped elect Miami-Dade’s first female mayor, and our work was often quoted in the city’s legitimate news sources in paragraphs that frequently began “Even the Plantain…”
Buoyed by The Plantain’s success (and the fact that I live in California), I co-founded our LA counterpart The Avocado and launched “Guac Bottom,” a satirical sketch show produced in partnership with LA Taco.
Branded Content for The Plantain:
Client: U-Health Jackson Children’s Care
I founded The Plantain’s branded content division, and helped pitch and secure a partnership with its first (and now longest-running) branded partner, Jackson Memorial Hospital.
I spearheaded multiple campaigns to promote and market U-Health Jackson Children’s Care (Pediatrics), leading a team of creatives and producers from pitch to final delivery, including copywriting, direction, producing and client management, and distribution.
From longer-form comedic sketches (2-3 minutes) to short-form (under 1 min) unscripted videos, our branded campaigns spanned both style and substance.
U-Health Jackson Campaign: Kids Explain (Trilogy)
“This partnership has exceeded our expectations. This was an opportunity for us to try a new approach at branded video content — and we’re very pleased with the results”
- Jennifer Piedra, Senior Director of Communications for Jackson Health System
Campaign: Miami Time (Trilogy)
Client: Health Foundation of South Florida
Campaign: #IDidItSFL (La Vacuna)
From initial conception and copywriting to design, and launch, I led the branded content campaign #IDidItSFL (La Vacuna), a partnership between The Plantain and the Health Foundation of South Florida, to dispel common myths about the Covid-19 vaccines.
Content included a custom animated video, trilingual branded carousel posts dispelling vaccine-specific myths, and a custom t-shirt giveaway, distributed across The Plantain’s Instagram, Twitter, and newsletters.
Note: Custom animations of Espumita (the espresso cup) and Platanito (the plantain) were created by Alec Castillo. All other work below is mine.
Video: Vacuna Vacation (La Ventanita con Espumita)
Carousel Posts
To reach South Florida’s diverse trilingual community, I designed and released our carousels in English, Spanish, and Creole, making sure to speak specifically to each group by tweaking the copy in each language with different community-specific jokes and references.
Videos | Editorial
In addition to leading all branded content initiatives, I ran The Plantain and The Avocado’s Instagram and Twitter channels. I wrote and produced all original videos (like the video voter guide below), designed all of our creative assets, and adapted our long-form satire articles into viral videos, transforming our digital presence and building out a community of engaged uber-fans. Below is just a fraction of my output over three years, but it gives a good sense of my style and taste: fast-paced, visually engaging, and irreverent.
Posts
Roles: Design, Copywriting, Photoshop, Distribution.
Stories
Roles: Design, Copywriting, Photoshop, Distribution.
Freelance
Creative Producer
LA. NYC. MIA | Since 2008
From producing films in competition at Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW to music videos, documentaries and more, I’ve produced highly-visual stories across a wide array of mediums and channels since 2008.
Creative Coordinator
New York, NY | 2014 - 2017
Serving as a creative coordinator, I helped manage large-scale consumer-facing marketing campaigns and wrote marketing, publicity, website, and newsletter copy to promote HBO shows including Game of Thrones, Veep, and Silicon Valley across digital and social channels. I also coordinated large-scale projects with HBO’s partners like Live Nation, Ommegang, and Funko, and helped execute complicated activations like the 24-city Game of Thrones Live Concert tour, HBO’s presence at SXSW & Comic-Con, and the various initiatives for the HBO Shop.
Writer
Since 2010 | Linked Samples Below
From profiles of artists like Judith Light and Josh Gad to c-suite executives of multinational corporations, I bring moving, heartfelt stories to life with engaging, muscular long-form writing. You can find a few of my nearly 100 articles by clicking here.
A few individual samples are also available to read by clicking on the images below:
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts w. Honors | Pittsburgh, PA
High School | Theater Program | Miami, FL
AFFILIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS
NALIP, GFS (The Roster), IAPWE, SAG-AFTRA
LANGUAGES & SKILLS
Languages: English, Spanish
Software: Adobe Premiere, InDesign, Photoshop, Squarespace, Wordpress, Slack, Trello, SEO, Google Analytics, Google Docs Suite, FB Business Manager
Skills: Concept development, copywriting, pre-production through post, budgeting and project management, and over 10 years of experience on film, television, and commercial sets.