Pasha Shapiro

Pasha began his career as an Art Director for the National TV in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This position put him in contact with Russian film directors, and soon he was involved in motion picture design. Later, Pasha started partnering with his classmate Ernst Weber, and their friendship turned into a stable professional tandem. Between 1996 and 1997 Pasha moved to the USA. Pasha worked for several years in the field of advertising, producing campaigns and websites for famous brands such as Adidas and EA Sports. The tandem Shapiro-Weber also came up with a short animation story “Unpredictable Behavior” based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. The cartoon, also premiered at the Cannes Festival and was nominated for Best Short Film at the 2008 Anima Mundi International Festival in Brazil. He was also approached by American artist Will.I.Am, and they collaborated for the production of art installations, TV commercials and music videos. One of Shapiro’s installations, Pyramidi, was exhibited in London and later toured art museums in Los Angeles, Stockholm, Istanbul and Athens. Pasha has also directed music videos for Wiz Khalifa, Miley Cyrus, French Montana and Anja Nelson.

In 2015, Erykah Badu claimed that Shapiro-directed video for the newest song of the Black Eyed Peas “Yesterday” had borrowed its main idea from her 2008 MTV Video Music Awards winning clip “Honey”. However, the dispute was restricted to the online and social media space and no further comments were issued on either side.