Manu Pons

Manu was born in Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. When he was 13 he immersed himself in the hip-hop culture as a graffiti artist, activity that he has developed for over 20 years. He has completed numerous murals in his city and has been a key figure in the street scene in Valencia. At the age of 20 he created Mania Lirika, and published more than 20 rap songs under this name. Fight and protest against unfair social issues were the common concern. As a teacher in the most challenging and outlawed area in Valencia, Manu started developing some skills in the audio-visual world, whilst producing educational videos and documentaries with his students. Consequence of the study of the Philippine martial art Arnis, he started together with Pablo Verdejo, the company TheNatives, where they constructed fight choreographies and action sequences for short films in the eastern Spain area. He is now a teacher of stage and drama fighting at Escuela Off and has developed with TheNatives different courses like "action for actors". Nowadays he plays the role of Director, creative Director and writer at TheNatives, where he and his team have produced several music videos, commercials, documentaries and short films.