Born in Drôme, he was three years old when his parents moved to Goussainville. In 1985, he worked as a lighting designer at the Porte-Saint-Martin theatre. He received a cultural events organizer diploma for his activities within the association he founded, IDRISS. It was then that he wrote his first fiction, which he shot with few resources in 16 mm format, Hexagone, a film relating the life of an Arab immigrant family. The film was transferred to 35mm media with the help of grants and released in theaters in 1994.