Off-Script: Theo Skudra on Going From Drake’s Tour Bus to the Director’s Chair
It’s not unusual for commercial directors to do something outside of advertising, to have an adjacent side hustle. Between commercial shoots, some might photograph, make short films or take whatever they can get while they wait for the next pitch. But Theo Skudra’s between jobs gig is the kind of gig that most people can only dream of, spending months on the road as Drake’s personal photographer, tour videographer and go-to music video director.
Theo has spent over a decade inside Drake’s world, documenting the different aspects of Drake’s life on tour. He started with a camera in hand, capturing fleeting moments backstage, on tour buses and in studios, images that would become part of Drake’s visual DNA. Over time, his role evolved, expanding with him directing music videos, shaping album rollouts and contributing to the broader aesthetic that surrounds one of hip-hops biggest artists.
“It started when I was on set for the ‘Marvin’s Room’ music video,” remembers Theo. “Friends of mine had me show up as the digital image technician. I was taking SD cards and backing them up. I also had my stills camera and was taking photos. Those ended up in Drake’s hands. And a few days later, I got a call as he’d used one of them for the single art for ‘Trust Issues.’ From then, it was like, ‘Listen, you don’t need to come back as crew. Just come take photos.’ That’s how it began.” Following that, Theo became a constant presence, capturing behind-the-scenes moments that most fans never see. Eventually, he was asked to come on tour, and the rest, as he says, “was a blur for years.”
Touring with Drake is, in Theo’s words, “strange” and demanding. “You’re breaking away from a routine – especially when you’re doing something creative,” he says. “It’s rare to have that. So it’s weird for me. I’m still coping with my own flow.” There is no pause, no off-switch. Shows, travel and spontaneous creative moments fill every day, yet Theo has found ways to adapt, understand the restless pace and channel it into his art form. That flexibility is rooted in touring, where Skudra has honed a rare kind of creative stamina. “Tour photography isn’t seen as high art,” he says, “but what it does is train you to constantly reinvent how you shoot something, to renegotiate how you want to be creative every single night.”
This muscle, of being reactive, observant and open to the unexpected, translates into his commercial work as well. On a John Legend campaign for furniture store Rove Concepts, Theo was causally wandering about during a tech scout and noticed a wind chime in the vertical garden. “It ended up becoming the centerpiece of the entire commercial,” he says. “The sound of it flowing in the wind, the music of the chime becoming the score, and that being the creative spark for John’s character to have an epiphany.” It’s the same instinct that has guided his work on music videos, from ‘Nonstop’ to ‘Nokia’. Drake often has the first seed of an idea – a concept or location that he’s been playing with – and then with Theo, they’ll tease out and expand it together.
“Drake is extremely open and spontaneous,” he says. “It’s not the usual label process of creating a pitch deck, getting it approved and shooting exactly that. Things evolve. We might start with two scenes and end up with eight, and that becomes the video.”
The intensity of touring has taught Theo to be resilient, to keep looking out for golden moments worth capturing and to never get creatively complacent. “On this tour, there were maybe 35 shows,” he says. “The first stretch, you don’t know how the show flows… By the time you nail it, by show 12, you panic. You’re like, ‘These are all going to look the same unless…’ And then you figure it out: how to make it different for the rest of the tour. That muscle becomes the game.” It’s a training ground for hyper-attentiveness and keeps his instincts sharp.
While touring can be relentless at times, Theo reflects on how personal and intimacy parts of it and the importance of keeping a sense of humanity throughout. He remembers one particular surreal moment when they were on the road, finding themselves in Birmingham when Ozzy Osbourne had passed away. Drake invited him to pay their respects to him at the The Black Sabbath bridge: “Of course, I always have my camera. We walked over. He had a little bottle on him, took a swig, poured a little out… Moments like that happen off and on. After all these years with Drake, it’s small moments like that that feel like magic – even under grim circumstances.” Or when they were in Germany for Oktoberfest, in between all the people shouting, drinking and wearing lederhosen. “Our crew just… being in that world,” says Theo. “We always end up in the right place at the right time. The show is one thing — but what we do after, or on days off, become the memories I keep. Shooting those moments keeps it fresh.”
Despite the intensity of working for Drake, Theo is branching more into commercial and narrative work with the same openness and responsiveness that has defined his tour days. He recently shot a Converse commercial with basketball player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a music video for Gordo in South Africa. “Working outside of Drake on a commercial, like the John Legend one for Rove, was interesting because I wasn’t sure what to expect,” he admits. “It was my first big show. But the pre-production focus was probably my favourite part.” For someone who has become so used to spontaneity, he enjoys the rigor of planning as it’s a new playground.
What drives Theo, ultimately, is collaboration. “My favourite part of any project – film, commercial, music video – is the social aspect. Working with people I like. That’s the thrill,” he says.
Now with the tour behind him, Theo is turning toward film. He has written his first feature and is working on his second, alongside some short films he hopes to shoot over the winter. “Film has always been my dream,” he says. “It’s what I was doing before I met Drake. I went to film school and then the wheels started turning right as I ‘joined the circus’ and started touring with him.” Now, after years of nonstop momentum, he has the space to build a narrative life alongside the touring one. “Developing my world outside of him, alongside him, that’s the most exciting part.”
For Skudra, the two worlds – touring with one of the world’s biggest artists and directing commercials with one of the industry’s most respected production companies – aren’t opposites. They feed each other. The responsiveness learned from performing in unpredictable environments becomes a commercial asset. The discipline and structure of advertising expand his visual vocabulary. And above all, the constant search for moments of truth – on a stage, on a tour bus, or during a location scout – grounds both.
It is this blend of instinct, discipline, and curiosity that makes Skudra’s outlook so compelling. He says he feels “very lucky” to have built such a long-standing creative relationship with Drake, and equally grateful to be expanding his world beyond it. “It won’t be ‘instead of’ – it’ll be ‘as well as,’” he says.
