We became friends about 5 years ago - in New York. He was an Art Director at Y&R, with a crazy writing partner and we'd go out for wild nights. His drink of choice, an Old-Fashioned. They were fun years, the years when hang overs didn't exist. We were young(er). Children of the 80's. 

Droga5 eventually recruited him to work in their Sydney office, and he moved away. I began getting 4pm Skype calls to virtually join parties in Roy's flat, which made him miss New York so much he finally moved back.

He's a badass creative - globally ranked, award-winning, having produced work at Saatchi+Saatchi, Y&R, Droga5, Anomaly and Grey. He pushes the boundaries in his work for clients such as MTV, Sportsbet (Australia's largest online gambling site), Tulipan Condoms and Converse. It's edgy, provocative, racy, controversial… all with a dark comedic twist.

I think his creative style comes from a history of childhood mischievousness and young adult recklessness. Stories like stealing his Mom's VHS camera and taping over family holiday footage to make a horror film at the hotel sauna, to getting kicked out of college for doing donuts in a truck on the soccer field. Torres strives to get a reaction out of people with everything he puts out into the world. Even if the reaction is, they're pissed.

Earlier this year we collaborated on a film project, his directorial debut, a music video for an up and coming band - Kool Head (see 1985 Issue 4). True to form, he decided to push the boundaries on this project using drugs as a theme. One day he called me and said, "You know that posh 40-something-housewife-type? The type of housewife that has dinner parties where women get together to do coke and gossip. Let's do that." And so began the project labeled: Trans Am.

Trans Am premiered last July at a 1985 hosted soiree in Williamsburg's very own Nighthawk Cinema. 

Roy currently resides in Brooklyn where he is frequently seen riding his vintage 72' Honda CB350. Two Kangaroo skins live next to his TV - they are his last memory of Sydney.