The Team
Who are we, you ask? We’re the freaks of advertising & design – passionate with a hint of – yep, you guessed it – freak. The freakiest part is we still have hope for our industries. We’re ever-ready to celebrate the ideas and talent that makes the ad industry worth being a part of. Scrappy people and international talent, that’s The Side Show for you. This is the part where we say “Yeah!”, jump up in the air, there’s freeze frame on us and upbeat 80’s music fades us out.
Josh D. Weiss - President
Josh is a freelance Creative Director/Art Director based out of Los Angeles. He’s previously worked with TBWA\Chiat\Day NY + LA, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Havas NY and BBDO Atlanta. His side projects have included The Trump Rio Grande Hotel, The Big, Little Book of Strange, Weird, Bizarrely 100% Real Animals (But Not Really), A Clear Pair of Socks and Fuck Type. As you are reading this, his cat Killbot 3000 is probably harassing him.
Sunita Deshpande - VP, Creative
Sunita is a Miami Ad School grad living in NYC (& LA when NYC is cold.) She started at Berlin Cameron as a copywriter, freelanced at places like JWT, McGarry, Translation, took acting & improv classes on the side and booked 8 episodes on a recent Marvel show, and most recently a creative director at FCB. She loved writing THE BIG BOOK with Josh and envies his hat.
Jessica Urgo - VP, Live Events
Urgo” is technically a Freelance ACD copywriter with all the usual awards, but rather than climb the career ladder she has chosen to ascend by jungle gym. Though she started out on the traditional ad route, she has since built in-house creative teams, led marketing for a FinTech start-up and recently pivoted to building worlds through experiential projects both virtually and in-person. Having lived in 10 states, 2 countries and constantly solo-traveling to climb mountains, she’s native to nowhere and is ever searching for the next big challenge.
Sukratti Jain - VP, Creative Tech
Sukratti is an outstanding Creative Technologist who recently graduated from Miami Ad School Europe. She has won a couple of Pencils in D&AD New Blood Awards and also a Cube in ADC. She has worked on brands like Verizon, Bravo TV, Oreo, McDonald’s, and more while interning with R/GA and 360i in New York. Before joining the advertising world, she was pursuing her Bachelors in Animation and Multimedia at BIT MESRA, India.
Serra Semi - VP, Website Design
Sukratti is an outstanding Creative Technologist who recently graduated from Miami Ad School Europe. She has won a couple of Pencils in D&AD New Blood Awards and also a Cube in ADC. She has worked on brands like Verizon, Bravo TV, Oreo, McDonald’s, and more while interning with R/GA and 360i in New York. Before joining the advertising world, she was pursuing her Bachelors in Animation and Multimedia at BIT MESRA, India.
Aarti Thamma - Sr. Art Director
Aarti is an art director based in San Francisco. She is a student at Miami Ad School. She is currently interning at Saatchi NY. She previously worked at R/GA, UEG & Glitch Mumbai where she worked on brands like Tide, Google, Verizon, Subway, Viacom18, Kwality Walls etc. Aarti also has an MBA in Marketing after which she had a brief stint in financial sales and social media strategy.
Macy Gonzalez - Art Director
Macy Gonzalez is a Chicago-based art director who recently graduated from book180 portfolio school. She is the recipient of a Young One’s merit and was selected as All Star for The One Club For Creativity’s Charleston Portfolio Night. She began earning her bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Columbia College Chicago and has since worked as a social media content creator and content manager on brands such as Take10 Trivia and RCD Packaging. She is currently looking for her first full-time position.
