Iain McGuinness was born on 13 August 1984 in Alexandria, Scotland, to a mother who was a primary school teacher, and a father who was an engineer. He has one older sister. He grew up in Clydebank, near Glasgow. He is a film-maker and photo-journalist. He started making films in 2004; first corporate videos and TV adverts, and then documentaries and music videos. He then began additionally working in photo-journalism from 2014.