About Walbert Castillo 

Walbert is a Creative Video Director with a passion for storytelling and a keen eye for crafting compelling narratives. From concept to final delivery, Walbert leads the creative vision at Amazon as an Associate Creative Director for the AWS Brand Marketing team, collaborating with stakeholders to develop and refine brifs that drive impactful content.

With a strong background in shaping story direction, conducting interviews, and crafted targeted question lists and scripts, Walbert ensures every project is strategically aligned and resonates with its audience.

Outside of Amazon, Walbert founded his own pop-up restaurant here in Las Vegas called Istorya, meaning “story” in Filipino. The restaurant serves cuisine inspired by Philippine history, with an emphasis on storytelling as part of the immersive dinner experience. Istorya won best Best Pop-Up by the Las Vegas Weekly.

Prior to Las Vegas, Walbert was based in Washington, DC, where we worked at USA TODAY as a Multimedia Journalist and interned at CNN and The White House during the Obama Administration. Originally from Chicago, Walbert graduated with a BS in Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Awards: 

• AWS in Orbit is a multi-award winning series, with platinum and gold Viddy awards, and a platinum Marcom Award (2024)

• Istorya wins Best Pop-Up Restaurant by the Las Vegas Weekly (2023)

• American Society of News Editors, Emerging Leaders (2019)

• Society for News Design. 3 Awards of Excellence for Best of Digital Design (2019, 2017)

• USA TODAY’s Emerging Leaders Program, nominated by Vice President of Video Content and Editor-in-Chief (2019)

• USA TODAY Network’s Annual Awards, 1st Place in Digital Storytelling (2017)

• Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth Honoree Award, Chicago (2016)