Chatting with Boards on his cell phone while running errands in his New York City neighborhood, Ted Pauly is constantly interrupted by well-wishers offering him congrats. While we'd like to think it's because somehow the word got out that the 33-year-old had just been chosen as one of Boards' Directors to Watch, the shout-outs are coming for a different reason - he and his wife are the proud new parents of twin boys, Claude and Gus.

It's the latest challenge for Pauly, following his full-fledged move into directing after several years with MTV, New York's in-house promo department. He came to MTV after getting his MFA in painting from Penn State University, following friends also employed by the company. "I had an amateur interest in TV and film but I didn't think it was my calling," he recalls. "But I needed a job."

That job evolved from basic PA work to, eventually, writing and directing image campaigns for the network. "After a while you get a shot. You start producing and, if you want to, you're writing and directing. I always wanted to do both."

He did both - quite well - while at the network, combining MTV-friendly weirdo humor with occasional dollops of poignancy ("Wheelchair" from the "Portraits of Our Times" campaign being a shining example). But eventually it was time to move on, and advertising seemed like the right next move. He signed to Tate USA in the summer of '05. "I wanted new challenges, and also to see if I could work with another set of human beings."

While at Tate, a series of spots for Blue Shield Insurance, in which ordinary folks get extraordinary excitement out of their insurance plans, saw him hit his stride. Upon moving to Furlined last October (where he's repped for the US; Soft Citizen handles him for Canada and Blink for the UK), the laughs have kept coming. He's shot Carl Weathers for Old Spice, subtle psychosis for Hillside Farms (the "Go Meat!" campaign) and endearingly off-kilter webfilms for Mountain Dew, "Mash Up" and "Kicks", featuring beat-mixing senior citizen and public access host "Sue Teller".

While currently "dadding it", Pauly looks forward to getting back on set as well as working on some pet screenplay projects and maybe picking up the brush again. "Honestly, I want to do it all, but space and time is at a premium, and also the desire to sustain at least a moderately comfortable lifestyle is a driving factor too." He pauses, as if in disbelief of what he just said. "That sounds very practical."

Furlined http://www.furlined.com
Blink http://www.blinkprods.com
Soft Citizen http://www.softcitizen.com