Rob is a veteran television commercial producer, and has produced hundreds of commercials throughout the world. A heavily abridged list of his many clients includes: Mercedes-Benz, McDonald’s, Johnson and Johnson, Exxon, Cialis, Jeep, GM, Nissan, Cosentyx, Expedia, Travelocity, Haagen-Dazs, Pepto Bismol, Celebrity Cruises, Gatorade, IBM, Women’s Tennis, Maybelline, Mastercard, and American Airlines. Rob has worked with almost every major advertising agency worldwide and has filmed on every continent but Antarctica (it’s on his ‘To Go To’ list, though).
Rob has worked with a wide variety of directors in a wide variety of film categories. While he is best known for his work in commercials, Rob has also produced many major music videos. In recent years, he has produced for such artists as Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Shania Twain.
His previous credits include award-winning videos by legends such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Al Green, Elton John, Mary J. Blige, Andrea Bocelli, Marc Cohn, Josh Groban, Ozzy Osbourne, The Backstreet Boys, Slayer, Ice Cube, and Steven Tyler—among others. In fact, Rob has produced over 100+ music videos. Some were great, most were good—but, admittedly, there were a couple of stinkers.
Working in tandem with Mathew Cullen, Rob produced the live action prologue for the film Pacific Rim directed by Guillermo del Toro. He also produced the TV promo for HBO’s Silicon Valley Season Six, an homage to Mad Max. Rob was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work producing interstitials for “The Walking Dead” on AMC–-but he lost to James Corden. He said he couldn’t be angry to lose to Corden (at least that’s how he’s rationalized it). By the way, Rob is always interested in expanding in the television and movie categories. Just a casual little heads-up.
Rob’s ‘Formal Education’ includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at USC. He received his Masters in Film there too, through the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program. But some people find Rob’s ‘Informal Education’ much more entertaining. He grew up in a show business family and was allowed to run around a major film studio as a young kid. It was because his dad was a studio executive, who, at one time, was in charge of the entire Paramount backlot. This meant that no one could throw Rob off a set. So that’s when he first fell in love with film production.
Most of the rest of his family, however, focused on film music. Rob’s uncles were Alfred, Emil, and Lionel Newman. And his first cousins are film composers Randy, Thomas, and David Newman. Here’s a bit of trivia about Rob’s family. On the TV game show Jeopardy, the final question for $51,000 was: “It’s the last name of Alfred, Lionel, David, Emil, Thomas, and Randy, who with 90 nominations are the most Oscar-nominated family?” The answer was: “What is Newman?” Some people (who have a long history with Rob) claim he became a producer because he can’t carry a tune without dropping it. However, Rob says he became a producer because he didn’t like practicing the piano and writing film scores. He much prefers agency-client dinners and interesting, invigorating discussions about product shots.
One other thing: Rob’s true passion is travel and travel jobs. Through January of 2022, he is 1K on United/Star Alliance, Executive Platinum on American/One World, and Platinum Medallion on Delta/Sky Team. Yes. For real. All three. Which means he welcomes travel jobs that help him maintain his status.
Rob lives in Los Angeles and also has a second home in Koh Samui, Thailand.
Note: If you actually end up working with Rob, you might be able to talk him into telling you about his first job as a Production Assistant for David Wolper. And if you’re extra-nice and pleasantly pushy about it, he might even throw in a few other “real Hollywood stories” you’ve probably never heard. Just saying.