Interview with Ari Cagan & John Connor Hammond, Co-Founders of American Picture Company
My favorite “show” on my vertical TV (phone) is something called Submit Your Ick, or “The Ick” as the cool kids call it. I tracked down the creators, and found out one was behind my other favorite show Keep the Meter Running with Kareem Rahma, who you may know from Subway Takes.
Those words may mean absolutely nothing to you, but today we sit down with two of the most creative people I know who represent a new era of Hollywood. It’s a must read if you care about where this industry is headed.. which you should.
American Picture Company is a New York-based studio making TV for your phone. Their flagship series, The Ick, is a weekly romantic comedy that turns real-life dating disaster stories submitted by their community into scripted episodes — it has grown to 15 million monthly viewers, 580K followers in under a year. Founded by John Connor Hammond and Ari Cagan in 2025.
Our conversation is below..
AvA: How did you both get your foot in the door of the Industry?
John: I started an illegal comedy club in the basement of my Brooklyn apartment, through this I got to know a lot of comedians in NYC and started producing and directing their sketches.
Ari : I was grinding out videos for my Youtube channel when Adam McKay saw one and offered me a job writing, producing, and hosting a podcast. It was an investigative show called Things You Don’t Need to Know. We did 40 episodes.
AvA: You don’t make “internet content.” You make what feels like TV shows for socials. Was that intentional from day one working together?
John: Yes. Our goal has always been to produce videos and series that are cinematic, fresh, and worth your time.
AvA: How has traditional Hollywood viewed what you’re doing, and how has that changed in the past few years?
Ari: Three years ago Adam McKay, Staci Roberts Steele, and Anna Wenger bet on us early and helped us launch our first scripted series. Most of Hollywood thought it was cool but didn't fully get it. Today everyone's on board that this is the future, but a lot of what's getting investment right now are these soapy, low-grade micro-dramas. It kind of feels like entertainment is having its NFT moment. We've always believed the bar should be higher.
AvA: What’s the biggest mistake brands make when they try to “do social”?
John: Most brands treat their social pages like ad campaigns — with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But social pages are actually more like TV channels. The brands winning on social are the ones programming them that way. When you get that right, your campaign moments don't interrupt the feed — they live inside something people actually want to watch.
AvA: “Submit Your Ick” feels simple, but simple is deceptive. How many bad cuts, dead concepts, or failed pilots happened before it blew up?
Ari: Surprisingly, Submit Your Ick was the first pitch we ever took at APC. As we've launched more series, there have been a few pilots we've shot and ultimately killed. One in particular — John plays a spy who teaches people how to do stuff like drive a manual car (in the middle of a car chase). It was super fun to make, but unfortunately we didn't feel it had what it takes to go the distance.
AvA: What’s something about the algorithm or audience behavior you think people massively misunderstand right now?
Ari: The algorithms are built to figure out exactly what you make and how to bring it to as many people as possible. When you focus on the fundamentals of quality filmmaking - a solid script, good lighting, composition, talented actors - the score takes care of itself.
AvA: Brands want viral. Creators want control. Platforms want retention. Where do you compromise, and where do you refuse to?
Ari: People aren’t mindlessly scrolling, they are looking for something good to watch. So the viewer always comes first. That's actually where everyone's interests align. Brands get reach, platforms get retention, creators get work they're proud of. Everything we make starts with what's going to delight the person watching.
AvA: If I took away your budget, contacts, and reputation tomorrow, what would you create in the next 90 days? You can’t name anything you’re already working on.
John: Probably a sketch series. It’s something that we used to do for fun just before we started APC. This week there was just a blizzard in New York, we were laughing about an idea in which the mayor announced the blizzard like the city was being invaded. Things like that.
P.S. Now that you have our budget, contacts, and reputation, what are you going to do?
AvA: You’re dropping a book in the Fall. Why a book? And what’s next for you both?
John: We have so many insane Ick submissions that we wanted to bring them into the physical world. We love physical goods — they aren't proof we don't live in a simulation, but they're very convincing. Bigger picture, we're building The Ick into a media brand around dating as a whole — Substack, movies, a card game.
AvA: What is the ultimate goal with a social series that takes off? Sell to a network or something else?
Ari: I think the future of social channels is going to look a lot like the cable era. Our goal is to make a show people love, then build more around that same audience and that same feeling — until people come back again and again because they trust it's going to be great. Think Comedy Central. Think Hallmark. That is the opportunity, and we're not going to wait for someone else to figure it out.
Quick hits:
AvA: What is the best series on socials right now?
Almost Friday TV.
AvA: Best brand/creator partnership you’ve seen?
Reformation just partnered with a divorce lawyer for their 'Dump Him' campaign. We actually did a collab episode with them leading up to it and didn't fully understand what it was building toward — when they dropped the partnership we thought it was brilliant. Bella is a superstar over there. All-time? The Casey Neistat fuel band video.
AvA: Movie or book that changed your life/perspective?
George Lucas: A Life, A Swim in the pond in the Rain, Insanely Simple, The E Myth Revisited, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Farley, Magnolia, and nearly every Martin Scorsese movie
AvA: If you weren’t in the industry, what would you be doing?
Ari: Nothing, there is no plan B.
John: Probably construction.
Ari Cagan is the co-founder of American Picture Company. Before APC, he created content for his YouTube channel and spent two years writing, producing, and hosting the investigative podcast Things You Don't Need to Know alongside Adam McKay.
John Connor Hammond is the co-founder of American Picture Company. He got his start producing and directing comedy sketches with NYC comedians after launching an underground comedy club in the basement of his Brooklyn apartment.
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