I was born on June 9 th 1963, in Marseille, France from a Corsican father and a Tunisian mother.

I left my natal South of France after my Baccalaureate to settle in Paris to work in the film industry and learn on the job. I began my directing career with a film for a Fashion Institute in my hometown, Marseille, and a piece with friend artist Philippe Parreno. I did a few music videos. I shot most of this with my Super 8 camera. I got some attention and at last I signed with a film production in Paris. Things really got started when I landed a campaign in the US for Westin Hotels that was way above my league at the time. Lots of excitement! I ended up moving over to LA where I worked on campaigns for AT&T, American Express, Seiko… Then Propaganda the largest film production at the time offered me a position. In 1997, my family and I were longing for a more European lifestyle and when Jo Godman started to get me work in London, we decided to move over there with the opportunity to do more story telling work. I spent 20 years in London and I have dual citizenship, French and English.

I did a Wallis campaign for BBH London “Dressed to kill” with almost no money and that was nominated at the AD&D. I directed for Publicis London a worldwide campaign for Renault Mégane. I shot for Leagas- Delaney several Adidas commercials, a Patek Philippe and a BBC ad. I worked on Playstation, Scottish Power, Rover and others. I got awarded for a European William Lawson campaign “Hakka”. And I started to make deals with various reputable production companies across Europe.

My first commercial for Film Master in Italy was for TELIT: a new angle on Shakespeare’s Othello. I really enjoyed this shoot: it was character driven, more storytelling than anything I had done before; it felt like doing a movie trailer and I still like the film today. My collaboration with them has been quite successful with a number of campaigns for Fiat, one award winning spot for Audi, a film starring Schumacher and Barrichello, a BMW, Renault…

I directed a number of international or national campaigns across Europe: Cartier, Alfa Romeo, Seat, Suzuki, Dimple, France Telecom… and a series of Coca-Cola for Tempomedia in Germany, which won in 2001 an award at the German Art Directors Club and a Bronze at the German Klappe.

This marked the debut of my relationship with German production company Tempomedia. My spot for Nur Die “The Look of Love” won in 2000 a Bronze at the New York festival and a Bronze at the German Art Directors Club 2001. We ended up doing a lot of work together: IKEA, Vodafone, a number of Opel, Fuji, a BMW (with Montoya and Berger)… I shot a short film with them “In the Bathroom”.

They got me into beauty work and since then I think I have directed ads for most of the big names, many for L’Oreal, Schwarkopf, Nivea, Tresemme, some for Garnier, Pantene, Clear, H&S, etc… this has now bcome the core of my business.

All in all, I think years of experience have taught me to be a real adman, understanding my clients’ needs and looking to push their creativity as much I possibly can.

On the craft side, I am doing my best to keep my films simple and realistic, I always try to make my talents feel at ease on set to squeeze the best performance out of them, a less is more approach on acting.

It’s worth pointing that I always operate the camera myself, I believe this very practical approach gives me a special intimacy with my actors.

I have also learned that the best work is produced by clients willing to get out of their comfort zone, having the courage to trust their instinct rather than focus groups. Just like me. An adventurous client trusting his creatives, that’s what it takes to do great work.

Apart from that, I am a happy family man married with Laetitia who gave me two sons, Jules and Lucas and a wonderful girl, Lila. My best work so far.