Yann Demange (b. 1977)
Birthplace:
Paris, France
Born:
January 1, 1977
London-raised French director of cinema and television, Yann Demange, is of Algerian and French ancestry. Following the success of his television shows Dead Set (2008) and Top Boy (2011), he made his feature film directing debut in 2014 with the highly regarded indie film '71', for which he won the British Independent Film Award for Best Director. Demange, whose parents were Algerian and French, was born in Paris. When he was two years old, his mother and two elder half-brothers relocated to London, first to the south and later to the west of the city. Demange was reared in two four-year foster care placements in Essex between the ages of four and twelve, one with a French-speaking family and the other with a white Cockney family. His parents separated soon after the family relocated to London. His first name was originally Mounir, but after his parents divorced, one of his half-brothers persuaded his mother to alter it to Yann, and Mounir became his middle name. This allowed him to avoid prejudice due to his Arabic name. Demange, a French citizen, has stated that he mostly identifies as a Londoner and does not have a distinct sense of national identification. Before the nation's civil war broke out in the summer of 1991, he flew to Algeria to see his extended relatives. It was on this journey that he first saw The Battle of Algiers, a movie in which Demange's aunt made an appearance as one of the numerous uncredited performers. He claimed that learning about his aunt's part in the movie deepened his appreciation for it. "As absurd as it sounds, on some level, I think I felt like I had discovered an inheritance to some sort of personal lineage in films." At the age of eighteen, he started working as a runner on music video sets before enrolling at the London College of Printing's arts foundation. Later, he produced observational films for General Electric. Disney provided a scholarship for Demange to attend the National Film and Television School while he was in his late 20s. Based on his graduation film, he landed a partnership with ICM Partners, leading to his directing many episodes of the TV show Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007). After that, he directed the 2008 zombie horror series Dead Set, which received a BAFTA Television Award nomination for Best Drama Serial. Demange was nominated for a BAFTA Television Award for Best Director for his work directing Channel 4's Top Boy (2011), a gang drama set in Hackney. The serial was also nominated for Best Mini-Series. In 2014, Demange made his feature film directing debut with '71,' starring Jack O'Connell as a soldier sent to Belfast during the height of political unrest in Northern Ireland. '71 had its Berlin International Film Festival competitive premiere and went on to win praise from critics. In addition to being nominated for a BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer, Demange also received the British Independent Film Award for Best Director. Additionally, Demange has been praised as a bright emerging talent in British cinema. His latest project is directing Marvel Studios' Blade (2025), set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.