Our Team
While the OffAbbot team expands to fit the scope and scale of each production, the core founding team oversees each and every project from beginning to end. Since 2010, that core team has remained the same.
FRANK SAMUEL
Founder
Director/Executive Producer
Frank’s early life reads like a John Hughes’ film: from grade school skate punk in Cali to junior high in Texas, to racing mopeds in blue blazers around Bermuda. He worked his way up from a P.A. at Corman Studios to the art department on Talia Shires’ directorial debut. Frank was Assistant Art Director on The Mask and Steven Soderbergh’s The Underneath. Acting training with Jeffrey Tambor led to creative ventures in advertising. There, Frank found his niche. His work for Verizon, M&M’s, IFC Cable, Fox Sports, Oakland A’s, Wix.com and Visa distinguished him as a versatile commercial director who can find humor in unlikely places. One of his primary strengths is establishing trust and on-set camaraderie with athletes and celebrities, from boyhood idol Franco Harris, to Brett Favre, to Ronde and Tiki Barber, to Reggie Jackson, to Heidi Klum. His work garnered numerous awards, including a Gold Lion at Cannes. As Executive Producer Frank has launched live-sports franchises on NBC and Twitch, is currently in development on several sports documentaries, and is editing a biopic on legendary Hollywood actor Orson Bean,
JEFF HUGGINS
Founder
Chief Creative Officer
As Chief Creative Officer/Executive Creative Director, Jeff has led creative departments at Deutsch New York, McCann SF, and JWT SF. At McCann he managed more than 100 creatives, and served as Worldwide
Creative Director on Microsoft overseeing work for all 7 divisions (from Xbox to Office to Windows Server) in 29 countries. At Deutsch he was creative lead on the agency’s portfolio of J&J brands, Ikea, Starwood, and USAA Insurance. Prior to his creative director days, Jeff was an award-winning copywriter at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, FCB SF, and Ogilvy & Mather where he produced highly successful campaigns for Nike, Budweiser, Levi’s, Starbucks, American Express, GM, and Citibank. His work has won Cannes Lions, Gold Effies, One Show pencils. Since leaving the “traditional” agency world in 2010, Jeff has worked as C-level creative director and brand consultant for Wix.com, Elizabeth Arden, Mondelez, L’Oreal, a number of Silicon Valley start-ups. Along with filmmaker/EVP Frank Samuel he is currently producing documentary films on actor Orson Bean, boxer Devin Haney, and a series on notorious sports villains, while also leading content development/production for NBC Sport's Ring City USA boxing platform.
LAUREN BAYER
Founder
Executive Producer
Lauren started her career on the advertising side of things working at Young and Rubicam where she learned the foundations of advertising. Realizing her love for production and collaboration she worked her way to the production side and began her 20 year career in commercial production. She has aligned herself with some of the top directors in the business working on award winning commercials for MasterCard, VW, Sprint, AT&T, Fox Sports, Wix.com and Honda among the many. In 2012 she along with Frank Samuel joined forces to embark on the formation of OffAbbot. Together they have created a company that allows them to handle creative, client relations and production all under one roof.
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