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Born in Marin, California but soon after moving to Tokyo, Japan, Brand Birtwistle kicked off his entertainment career modeling for Baby Dior at age 2. At six he moved to a suburb of Denver, CO where he developed a penchant for the arts - splitting his time between starring in the local theater and tearing up the stage, singing in a punk band. After graduating high school in 2000, an acting scholarship from Pepperdine University brought him to Malibu to pursue his performing passions.

 

While doing countless theater productions at Pepperdine, Birtwistle linked with local band Aria Decline and within a month of graduating was touring the US from LA to Boston playing bass and singing background vocals. Aria Decline opened for Switchfoot and Nikka Costa and their single "The Obvious", cut with producers Chuck Reed (50 Cent, 2 Pac) and Phil Kaffel (No Doubt Tragic Kingdom), was played on indie radio stations across the United States.

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In 2005 Birtwistle decided to return to LA where he found commercial representation as an actor and began teaching music to children. He was performing in commercials and indie films when he was asked to model for a still shoot and began booking constant photo shoots. This re-ignighted his fashion career. When the Writers Guild went on strike in '07 and acting work dried up in Los Angeles, Birtwistle moved to Hong Kong where he was signed with and put up by Baby Blue Modeling Agency. While there, he experienced many facets of the fashion industry including runway shows, editorials, advertisements, look books, and working as the fit model for REI as every piece of their '08 men's line was fit to his body.

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When the Writers Guild strike finalized, Birtwistle returned to Los Angeles to continue modeling and acting. Being relationship driven, he developed a massive rolodex of models, makeup artist, hair stylist, designers, venue owners, and sponsors. He decided it was time to put them together and throw his own fashion show.

 

The first show Birtwistle directed had such success that he was asked to direct and coordinate 7 more shows in the following 6 weeks which culminated in him being asked to coordinate the '09 Fall/Winter LA Market Week with the California Market Center. It was a 3 day event which he directed, choreographed and exclusively booked over 100 models which propelled him to do 40 of LA’s hottest shows including four consecutive seasons of LA Fashion Week, Music Loves Fashion at Coachella, and internal Guess fashion shows.

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During this period, Birtwistle also started a model and talent agency called Sills Models based out of Paramount Studios. He packaged and developed over 250 models, making Sills the fastest growing Agency in Los Angeles.

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Wanting to focus more on his productions, Brand left the agency and  delved into film. To understand the ins and outs of productions, Birtwistle worked in nearly every production position available. He was a Production Assistant on International Blockbuster The Hunger Games, a 1st or 2nd Director on twelve other films (Burn Country won Best Actor 2016 TriBeca Film Festival), worked as location manager on Television Series Swedish Dicks (Peter Stormare, Keanu Reeves), production managed numerous commercials, put 22 tracks into a feature as the music supervisor, and wrote and directed in various formats.

 

G L O W, a scifi-mystery he produced,  won the 2014 Panavision Future Filmmaker Award from the HollyShorts Film Festival and in 2015, Birtwistle released his first feature Followed, which is hailed as one of the top found footage films.

 

Birtwistle currently primarily works in commercials with the top name brands in the world, including producing the first national spot for Uber.

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Brand lives in Venice Beach, CA, enjoys exploring local restaurants, and hanging out at the beach.

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