Ali Ali

Ali Ali is an acclaimed director from Cairo, Egypt and former Executive Creative Director and founder of the independent agency Elephant. He is one of the region's most sought after directors, and was recently named by the Gunn Report as one of the ten most awarded Directors in the world today. With over six Cannes Lions under his belt, as well as the coveted yellow pencil for direction at last years D&AD awards. His other Cannes Lions include a Silver Lion for Panda Cheese in 2010. With more than 90 million views, “Never Say No to Panda” was named one of the most watched TV spots of all time by The Guardian. He initially earned a degree in computer science from the American University in Cairo. However, preferring storyboards to motherboards, he quickly abandoned a programming career to study Art Direction and Graphic Design in Miami. His first job was in 2003 as an Art Director with D'Arcy Bucharest. Over the next few years he built an impressive career as creative director for some of the world’s top agencies – Leo Burnett, JWT and McCann Erickson – before topping it off as ECD of DDB Berlin. In 2010, he founded Elephant with his creative partner Maged Nasser, with the two-man shop quickly becoming the region's most awarded agency. Despite the agency's success, Ali quit the ad world to focus on his directing career full-time in 2012. Born in Egypt and raised all over the world, his work has an attentiveness to local realities as well as an international sensibility.