Nabil Elderkin (born February 11, 1982) is an American-born Australian film and music video director and photographer, who is of Iranian and American descent. He is mononymously credited as Nabil in his videos. Elderkin has directed videos for musical artists such as: Dua Lipa,[1]Kanye West,[2]Kendrick Lamar,[2]Frank Ocean,[2]John Legend, Arctic Monkeys, and Foals. Born in Chicago and raised in Australia, he is most recently based in Los Angeles, California.[3]
In early 1990s, his parents separated and his mother returned to the United States.[citation needed] Soon Elderkin, just 17 at the time, joined his mother in Chicago. He studied photography and for some years photographed music bands and concerts and Chicago-based DJs.[citation needed]
Career
Elderkin's big break came when he befriended the then relatively unknown rap artist Kanye West.[3] Elderkin had heard a Kanye West mixtape and had tried to contact the rapper by looking up www.kanyewest.com.[3] The website came up as unregistered but available for registration, so he bought the domain name on an impulse. Three weeks later an executive from Roc-A-Fella Records contacted Elderkin to tell him the label had just signed Kanye West to a multi-album deal and wanted to know how much he was asking for the domain name. Elderkin wasn't interested in a payment for the domain and preferred to transfer the domain name provided he could meet the new artist and do a photoshoot with him, these images went on to be the artist's first publicity photos.[4]John Legend also happened to be at the photoshoot which led to the two forming a relationship, and future video work together where Elderkin introduced Legend to his future wife, Chrissy Teigen.[5][6]
His feature-length debut is the award-winning documentary film Bouncing Cats[9] about a breakdance workshop for teaching b-boy culture to Ugandan disenfranchised youth. The film was financed by Red Bull through its Red Bull Media House.
