Meet The Kennedys 12

Here we are, on our playground. The suits? A bit too big. A little corporate, a little out of our depth, and totally unbothered by it. Because underneath it all, we’re still playful, still curious, still figuring it out. And honestly? That’s exactly what we love about us.

Meet Rita.

Born in Lithuania, shaped by its lovely dark woods and stories. A country full of creative minds, and hers just happened to lean toward the visual kind.

A storyteller at heart, drawn to everything eerie, moody, or unsettling (can’t resist a horror). As a child she learned filming and editing from her dad and it took off from there.

Studied Graphic Design in London and Television in Amsterdam. Spent seven years in advertising, crafting ideas through art direction and concept – before joining the Kennedys for a bit more chaos, a lot more play.

When it’s time to rest the mind, she goes up – literally – spinning and dancing in aerial fabric.

Meet Samuell.

Born in London, raised in Amsterdam. Half German & half Dominican – he grew up on reggae meets Björk meets Miles Davis meets Picasso, and so began the start of a storyteller.

He started with Graphic Design, but that was just the gateway drug. Fashion, music, sound, art direction. Samuell sees stories everywhere and tells them however they come. He curates. He directs. He performs. He DJs. He even started a knitwear label with his mom (she knits, he designs-creative harmony at its coziest).

Movies, books, food, the outdoors – he consumes it all like a self-proclaimed critic and lives like a sponge. Just keep him fed and creatively challenged, or he’ll start tweaking. Big feelings, big moods, big ideas.

Meet Miray.

She’s been based in Amsterdam for a while now, but originally hails from a tiny village in the east of the Netherlands (where clogs are still very much a thing). With a Turkish mother and a Frisian father, Miray’s mixed heritage has always been a rich source of inspiration.

She studied sound and ceramics in Chicago and recently graduated from the Moving Image department at the Rietveld Academie. Her work spans meditative soundscapes and hard-hitting techno. She loves observing and writing, preferably in that order, and creates documentaries about grief and truck drivers.

As a Kennedy at Wieden+Kennedy, Miray hopes to share not just a vision, but a way of noticing. To her, the world is a series of quiet questions: what is a life, a word, a bond between people? She takes nothing for granted. Not love, not language, not the shape of a moment passing. 

Meet Amber Paris Montalvo (AP).

A Taurus, dancer, writer, coffee lover.

Raised in the heart of New York City, her childhood was a vibrant blend of culture, rhythm, and movement. From the Brooklyn Museum, to NYU Tisch, to Studio Museum in Harlem, she’s been in constant search of her creative identity. But life lead her down a path of racial self healing where her craft became medicine. Now at Wieden+Kennedy for two years as New Business Account Executive, AP is ready to plunge deep into creative force with The Kennedys. In her free time, you con find AP on stages across Amsterdam performing spoken word poetry and hosting writer sessions through her book Ovaflo.

Meet Nina.

Born in Slovakia, raised by every stray idea. With roots in Serbia and Kosovo, she grew up collecting thoughts and turning them into stories.

A copywriter and strategist by craft, she’s most at home with a pen, a zine, or a book she can’t put down. Her mind likes structure, her soul likes chaos and she finds both in words. After studying anthropology and creative industries, she shaped narratives across cultures and causes, always chasing the “why” behind ideas.

Now at the Kennedys, she’s here to stretch stories further. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her playing tennis, crafting little books, or wandering wherever her curiosity pulls next.

Meet Cole.

Cole lives in Amsterdam, before that Rotterdam, and before that Luxembourg, and before that the void.

Cole started his artistic career with a focus on digital illustration – this is because that’s what he studied. He got bored of that and decided to expand to a multidisciplinary approach. Now Cole animates, takes pictures, makes posters, shoots videos, etc etc etc. Cole is very good at these things (maybe remove this part to come across as more humble). 

Cole is just happy to be here. #blessed

Meet Nico.

Nico grew up in southern Italy. He moved to the Netherlands driven by curiosity, restlessness, and a desire to become his complete self. With a soft spot for the sun, the sea, and the Renaissance, he carries that southern sensibility into everything he does.

Trained as an architect with a creative eye, he’s never been one to fit into a box- instead, he bends it. He crafts sculptures, designs installations, curates exhibitions and indulges in compulsive shopping.

Painting has been a lifelong passion (currently focused on watercolours). He collects magazines like relics, and even created his own. A fashion enthusiast. Kate Moss at heart. Always searching for that sweet, slippery space where things get strange, vibrant and begin to matter

Meet Karl.

Born in Cotonou, raised in Munich, shaped somewhere in between. He studied at AKI in Enschede (shoutout to The Tiny-Ass collective). And now he calls Amsterdam his home.

His creative spark? Lit in high school, when making fire PowerPoint presentations turned out to be way more fun than doing homework.

Since then, it’s been a nonstop exploration: photography, motion graphics, ceramics, sculpture, editing… Karl doesn’t choose a medium – he lets the idea make that choice. He’s drawn to themes of identity, the self in space, and the overall beautiful weirdness of existing.

His work lives in the in-between, where form meets feeling and questions echo louder than answers. He moves through the world, half-dreaming. Always watching. Always collecting.