Riot hires Orla Houston-Jibo and Julia Hallawell

Riot Communications has hired Orla Houston-Jibo and Julia Hallawell as associate directors.  

The appointments will support the growth of the arts, culture and entertainment PR agency following a series of new client partnerships such as the Science Museum Group and Octopus Publishing. 

Houston-Jibo joins the agency after two years as a communications, marketing and cultural programming consultant for clients in the arts, hospitality, lifestyle and heritage sectors, including Bloomsbury Publishing, Chiswick House & Gardens, and Lore Group (which includes One Hundred Shoreditch and Sea Containers hotels). Prior to that, she was associate director and head of lifestyle division at Scott & Co where her clients included SKETCH London, Sir Hotels and Petworth Places. Houston-Jibo also brings with her in-house publishing experience, having been PR director at Phaidon and head of publicity and partnerships at Thames & Hudson. She also worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum as a project manager and assistant curator in the Contemporary Programmes department. 

Hallawell brings to Riot more than 25 years of experience across film, theatre and arts publicity. She joins from Kate Morley PR where she devised and delivered campaigns for West End productions including “To Kill A Mockingbird” starring Matthew Modine and “Dr Semmelweis” with Mark Rylance. Prior to that she created and led a new Influencer Engagement offering for Jersey Road PR. Earlier in her career, Hallawell worked at Shakespeare’s Globe where she led the theatre’s PR campaigns including for the opening of the indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. 

Her experience in film includes distribution publicity for the UK releases of “American Beauty”, “Shakespeare in Love” and “East is East” and representing international titles at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals. 

In addition to these two new hires, Jules Baretto, who started as an intern at Riot in September 2023, has been offered a permanent role at the agency as an account executive. He has worked across a wide range of accounts from Aardman to the Nero Book Awards. 

Caitlin Allen, m.d. at Riot Communications, said: “We are so excited to welcome these two brilliant talents to Riot. Our foundations are in books and our ambition will always be to work with the best of the best in that space, an ambition that will be supported by Orla’s experience on both sides of the in-house/agency relationship within the publishing industry.  

“Meanwhile our client list across TV, film, theatre and heritage continues to grow – and I’m delighted to have Julia and Orla joining as we expand our work further across the arts and entertainment world. In Jules we found the most passionate, enthusiastic and dedicated intern, so are very pleased that he has accepted a permanent position, too.”