Quick Facts
Biography
Adam Christopher Thurai Powell, (born 11 August 1981) is a British director and photographer from London. His work directing music videos spans a wide range of genres, including hardcore, rock, hip-hop and pop. His portfolio includes many mainstream artists such as Bring Me The Horizon, Example, Jamie T, The 1975, and Charli XCX. He was nominated as Best New Director at the UK Music Video Awards in 2009. His video for The 1975 track "UGH!" was also nominated for 'Best Group Video' Award at the MTV VMA's in Japan.
Career
Powell began his interest in film while shooting amateur skate videos, and editing them at home. After the initial buzz of editing these short clips to music, he began catering for bands who wanted him to create low budget music videos. He was able to build momentum as one of the UK's most prominent music video directors after signing for Black Dog Films, Ridley Scott Associates
In 2013, for the musician Sivu, Adam Powell made the decision to create a music video purely from the imagery shown while the artist was in an MRI machine. Of the result Powell explained, “The video is a collection of data gathered from MRI scans and is inspired by research into improving the management of children born with cleft lip and palate. I've just recently been obsessed with the idea of capturing images without conventional cameras/lenses.”
Adam Powell has also worked as an editor for James Copeman on Magnetic Man's "Anthemic" featuring P Money and Vato Gonzalez's "Badman Riddim (Jump)". Adam briefly stepped outside the realm of music videos when he took on the role as editor for Rose McGowan's directorial debut, in her short film 'Dawn' which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He has also worked alongside Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund as Second Unit director on The Rolling Stones’ "Doom And Gloom" and has also worked with Åkerlund as editor on commercials for various clients such as Lexus, H&M and Johnnie Walker.