Director Dawit N.M., best known for Charlie Puth’s “Mother” music video and work for brands including Curry Brand and Under Armour, has launched ABABA, a creative studio built as a pipeline between New York City and his native Ethiopia. Designed to bring Ethiopian creatives into the production and post-production arena, the studio aims to combine global taste, high-level execution, and scalable creative support.
ABABA offers full-service post-production, motion design, and animation. Following Dawit’s recent high-profile work, including helping Genre.ai CEO PJ Accetturo create a Popeyes AI music video and crafting a hand-drawn digital animation film for David Killian’s talent agency Wilding, the studio is now focused on a broader mission: helping agencies and production partners move faster, protect the quality of ideas, and maintain creative integrity from start to finish.
Dawit also shared a personal statement about the thinking behind ABABA:
What happens to the directors in the middle?
The ones who made the music videos you replayed until the algorithm gave up.
The ones who made the commercial that made you text a friend, “This is how it’s done.”
The ones who made the short film that felt like a doorway.
And then, one day, they were gone.
Some burned out. Some left. Some kept working in silence.
And one kept building a way out. A way through. A way forward.
He called it ABABA.
Dawit N.M. got his start early, moved fast, and saw success quickly. Even the “N.M.” became part of his story. What began as a hospital record error eventually turned into a philosophy: No Middle. It stuck because it captured exactly what he was chasing.
But with success came perspective. The faster he rose, the more clearly he saw the strain in the system around him. When an industry starts elevating young talent too quickly, it can be a sign that the market is moving faster than the structures designed to protect craft.
Dawit proved he was not a one-hit wonder. After the third hit, he stopped waiting for permission and started building something of his own.
A studio. A system. A bridge.
ABABA was built between New York and Ethiopia as a real pipeline, with the goal of placing Ethiopian creatives in the global arena through world-class taste, execution, and scale.
The studio offers full-service post-production, motion design, and animation through three tiers: Lite, Plus, and Max. Lite is driven by Dawit’s trusted team across post, motion, and limited animation. Plus adds Dawit’s creative direction. Max is designed for projects that demand something original and entirely new.
Over time, ABABA has helped make the work feel exciting again.
Its projects range from a Popeyes AI music video with PJ Accetturo, one of advertising’s more visible and polarizing figures, to a hand-drawn digital animation film for David Killian’s new talent agency Wilding, along with quieter behind-the-scenes work that helps protect both the idea and the execution.
Now the company is focused on something larger: helping agencies and production partners protect taste while moving faster, without losing the thread.
ABABA is designed to strengthen the two areas that most often strain the production process.
In pre-production, it helps turn internal pitches into fully testable ideas that go beyond storyboards, creating demos that can be felt and concepts that can be experienced before major production dollars are spent.
In post-production, it helps preserve the original vision by keeping the work under one roof, led by one team, with fewer handoffs and less creative dilution.
For now, ABABA’s services are digital by design.
That is because Dawit is building something deeper than a studio rooted in a single city.
As he puts it, “I have to reverse engineer the filmmaking process here in Ethiopia. Build a post team. Then a production team. Then eventually, a writer’s team.”
For the next masterpiece.
So what happens to the directors in the middle?
Some disappear.
And some quietly rebuild the conditions for great work to survive.
ABABA is stripping away the unnecessary middle.
ABABA is building a new path between craft and scale.
ABABA is for the people who still care about the work.
Creatives for Creators.
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