Ivan Madeira

Ivan was interested in music from an early age. He took up keyboard lessons at the age of 10 and after a birthday present from his parents on his 14th birthday, he got his first pair of vinyl turntables. He continued to DJ throughout school and university to study Systems Engineering. After leaving university in 2004, he travelled and lived around the Americas whilst doing temporary jobs in between in the UK. After fully returning to the UK he started his career as a project manager through an opportunity presented by his director. Always being creative he also co-founded the band Kid Karoshi with university friends George Harris and Amir Gander. Co-producer with George Harris and keyboard player, the band had radio play on BBC 6Music and played established venues such as Proud Galleries Hootenanny. Though Ivan left the band to focus on directing. Having not directed previously, this was a moment of inspiration. Working with school friend Jose Francos-Rodriguez, they worked on several short sketches, music videos and the short lived web series Papi Chulo. Not long after that, he worked and finished three short films in a year under the 'identity trilogy' bracket, with Grow Up going to 64th Cannes Film Festival to promote the short film after being accepted to the Short Film Corner.