Julian Morgans (lead image with bird), former editor of VICE and creator of the hit Netflix show Byron Baes, has joined Melbourne agency Sunday Gravy, assuming the role of editorial director.
The move comes in a period of rapid growth for Sunday Gravy. Since its 2022 inception, the agency has taken on a string of high-profile clients and grown its talent pool. Now with Morgans’ hire, the agency has strengthened its content division to produce videos, podcasts and articles.
“And TV shows,” added Morgans. “I mean, if a brand wants to make an actual TV show, then we’re the best positioned to make that happen.”
Morgans and the agency’s co-founder, Jack White, first crossed paths in their early 20s and have been great friends since.
“I’ve always admired Jules’ talent for unearthing compelling narratives and bringing them to life in an engaging manner and format,” says Jack. “Now he’s joined our team, we can offer our clients some really innovative strategies to cut through the noise and capture the consumer’s ever-elusive attention.”
Morgans started his career at film school before getting a staff writer job at VICE. From there he became editor and went on to create some truly original and eccentric content.
He once built a house out of rubbish and put it on AirBnB. For another story, he slept only three hours every night to try out some nightmarish trend called polyphasic sleep. Then, for another, he spent a week living like infamous poker-playing influencer Dan Bilzarian. He’s interviewed such public figures as Vanilla Ice, Al Gore, and the man who murdered Michael Jordan’s dad, while his VICE documentaries have chalked up millions of views. His podcast Extremes was Spotify’s first Australian acquisition and ran for three seasons.
In 2020, Morgans sold the concept for Byron Baes to Netflix, and spent much of that year fielding threatening DMs from Byron loyalists. The show went on to become one of the streamer’s biggest hits in 2022.
“I know how to get people to click,” said Morgans, unabashedly. “Creating noisy content is my schtick, and I’m thrilled to bring that to Sunday Gravy.”
