Carlos Pérez (director)

Carlos Pérez is a Puerto Rican film director, music video director, graphic designer, and the Creative Director/founder of the creative studio Elastic People. He is a five-time Latin Grammy Award nominee and a two-time winner for his music videos “Despacito” (Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee)^[1] and “Amor Eterno” (Marc Anthony).^[2]

In the beginning of his career, Pérez worked for a firm that specialized in automotive design, where he worked as a Senior designer for brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.^[3] Pérez was also appointed creative director of the graphic design firm Pinkhaus in 2000 before eventually founding Elastic People in 2002.^[3] At Elastic People, Pérez engaged in designing album covers and directing music videos for artists such as Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Ricky Martin,^[4] and Maná.

In 2004, Pérez served as the Creative Director for Daddy Yankee’s "Barrio Fino" album, designing its cover and directing the music video for the lead track, "Gasolina," which received an MTV2 Award nomination at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards.^[5][6][7] The music video also received a nomination in the MTV VMA’s Japan in the “Best Reggae Music Video“ category.^[8]

In 2005, Pérez directed his first documentary, Barrio Fino En Directo, a concert film and documentary of the making of Daddy Yankee’s album of the same name.^[9][10] It was featured in Billboard Magazine.^[10]

Two Elastic People projects designed by Carlos were featured in La Bienal Iberoamericana del Diseño in Madrid Spain in 2008, namely the packaging for the Tego Calderon album, The Underdog,  along with a brochure about Guatemala designed to promote a Travel Channel documentary.^[11]

In 2009, Pérez also directed the Latin Grammy-nominated documentary Free Tempo: Victory, which documented the collaboration between The London Symphony Orchestra and federal inmate Latin Hip Hop artist David Sanchez Badillo, also known as Tempo.^[12][13] This work earned him a Latin Grammy nomination in the Best Long-Form video category.^[13]

In 2010, Pérez directed the first stereoscopic 3D music video in Spanish for Daddy Yankee’s song, “Descontrol.”^[14] In the same year, Pérez directed the music video for Daddy Yankee’s “Grito Mundia.”^[15]

In 2011, Pérez received a Latin Grammy nomination for directing the music video for Ricky Martin’s “Lo Mejor de mi Vida Eres Tu.”^[16]

Pérez directed Daddy Yankee’s “Pasarela” music video in 2012.^[17]

The following year, Pérez directed Ricky Martin’s “Come With Me” music video.^[18] Pérez also directed Draco Rosa and Ricky Martin’s “Mas y Mas” music video.^[19]

In 2015, he directed a music video for a bilingual song featuring Will Smith on the remix of “Fiesta” by Bomba Estéreo.

In 2016, Pérez directed Ricky Martin’s “Perdoname” music video.^[20]

In 2017, Pérez also directed the music video for "Despacito," by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee,^[21][22][23] which broke five Guinness World Records and became the most-viewed music video in YouTube's history, earning a spot in Billboard's list of the "100 Greatest Music Videos of the 21st Century."^[24][25][26] Also in 2017, Pérez directed the music videos for Luis Fonsi and Demi Lovato’s “Échame La Culpa”^[22] and Daddy Yankee’s “Dura,”^[27] which hit the #1 spot on YouTube’s Music Video Global Chart.^[28]

In 2018, he directed another bilingual video "Está Rico" with Marc Anthony, Will Smith and Bad Bunny.^[29][30][31]In the same year, he directed the music videos for Daddy Yankee’s “Dura”^[32] and Ricky Martin’s “Fiebre.”^[33]

In 2019, Apple commissioned Carlos to design covers for Latin music playlists on Apple Music.^[23] He oversaw the creative direction and design of the album cover of Romeo Santos' Formula Vol.2, which was named Billboard's Album of the Decade from 2010 to 2020.

In 2022, Pérez directed Ricky Martin’s “Acido Sabor” music video^[34] and Don Omar’s “Let’s Get Crazy” music video.^[35]

In 2023, Pérez directed Ricky Martin’s “Fuego de Noche, Nieve de Dia” music video feat. Christian Nodal.^[36][37] In the same year, Pérez directed Don Omar’s “Sandunga” music video feat. Wisin & Yandel.^[38][39]

In 2024, Pérez collaborated extensively with Mexican singer Christian Nodal on music videos.^[40]He also directed Luis Fonsi’s “Roma” music video feat. Laura Pausini^[41] and Ricky Martin’s “A Medio Vivir” music video feat. Carín León.^[42]

He has also collaborated with artists like Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin, Don Omar, Draco Rosa, Bomba Estéreo, Laura Pausin, Demi Lovato, Ricardo Arjona, Sebastián Yatra, Maluma and many others.^{[34][35][43][44]}