Saman Kesh (born Saman Keshavarz) is an Iranian-American filmmaker based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, United States. He is known for his narrative music video work for notable artists such as

Basement Jaxx Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house scene ...

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter who has released six studio albums. His debut studio album, '' I Created Disco'', was released in June ...

Kygo Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (), is a Norwegian DJ and music producer. He garnered international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track " I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 20 ...

Placebo A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. In general ...

, !!! Chk Chk Chk,

Vitalic Pascal Arbez-Nicolas (; born 18 May 1976), better known by his stage name Vitalic (), is a French electronic music producer. History His first singles were released in 1996 and 1997, but were confined to underground electronic music scene. Ho ...

, Apparat and

Porter Robinson Porter Weston Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American DJ, record producer, musician, and singer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Robinson began producing music in his childhood. He signed to Skrillex's record label OWSLA at the age of 18, ...

. In 2009, during his attendance as a film student at Art Center College of Design, Kesh came into light with his first music video for Cinnamon Chasers' first single: "Luv Deluxe". Luv Deluxe has received over seven million views to date, won

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

Best Music Video award in 2010, and was shown in

Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...

's Director Showcase in 2010 at

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ci ...

. In 2012, he went on to direct videos for

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

Deus ''Deus'' (, ) is the Latin word for "god" or " deity". Latin ''deus'' and ''dīvus'' ("divine") are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European *'' deiwos'', "celestial" or "shining", from the same root as '' *Dyēus'', the reconstructed chief ...

and

, his video for the track 'Stamina' from French producer

sparked controversy with its thematic statements regarding weight loss and obesity in pop culture. The video resulted in Kesh winning his second

"Best Video" award in 2013. In 2013, Kesh moved into the narrative world with his short sci-fi short film, ''Controller''. The short received the No. 2 spot on Deadline Hollywood's 2013 ViewFinder's list, which polls Hollywood industry professionals on their favorite short films of the year. Later that year, he collaborated with celebrity author

Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author, screenwriter, short-story writer, and director. Ellis was first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a ...

and the British alternative rock band

on a short film series titled ' Unfortunate Details' which examined cases of sexual incidents gone awry. They were released as two

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

s, for the band's album, '' Loud Like Love''. In 2014 Kesh served as overseeing advisor to a team of directors for Visa's "Samba of the World", a digital campaign for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting rig ...

. Made in collaboration with

AKQA AKQA is a digital design and communications agency owned by WPP. It was founded in London in 1994 and expanded internationally in 2001 through a merger with agencies based in the United States and Singapore. It operated as an independent agency ...

and

COPILOT Music and Sound COPILOT Music and Sound LLC (commonly known as COPILOT Strategic Music + Sound, COPILOT Music, or COPILOT) is a New York-based music content and strategy company launched in 2008 by partners Jason Menkes and Ravi Krishnaswami. COPILOT provides music ...

, this interactive music video experience allowed fans to listen and watch 32 different music videos, based on 32 different countries, in real time. His video "Never Say Never", for

details the development of a fictional product called TWERKBOT, a Twerking robot. The video features controversial themes on robotics, sexuality, and pop-culture. His most recent video for the 2015

YouTube Music Awards The YouTube Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as YTMA) is an awards show presented by YouTube to honor the best in the music video medium. History The 2013 edition of the YTMAs were held at Pier 36 in New York City and were broadcast live at ' ...

was for the artist

, which featured an alien astronaut couple that crash-lands a costume party. Kesh is currently developing several films to direct, including ''Cubed'', setup at

Lionsgate Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian- American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered i ...

, which is loosely based on the 1997 cult film, ''

Cube In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross. The cube is the on ...

''. On April 24, 2015, ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, w ...

'' announced that Kesh will be adapting and directing a feature-length version of ''Controller'' with

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

Filmography

Music videos

References

External links

Youngdirectoraward.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kesh, Saman Living people 1986 births American people of Iranian descent American filmmakers Film directors from Los Angeles