Nordstrom wanted a holiday campaign that could cut through all the seasonal stress with a wink. Enter Kyle MacLachlan as The Gift Expert: a living embodiment of the brand’s core promises of great taste, calm authority, and an uncanny ability to find the right thing.

I developed his character and personality pillars — the grounded confidence, the off-kilter warmth, the subtle humor — and used that foundation to shape scripts and inform how supporting characters landed in each scene. Oh, what fun!