Nasri Atallah

Nasri Atallah (born 12 November 1982 in London, England)[1] is a British-Lebanese author, producer, television host[2] and media entrepreneur.

Nasri Atallah
Nasri Atallah in Beirut
Born
Nasri Atallah

(1982-11-12) 12 November 1982
London, England
NationalityBritish and Lebanese
Education
Notable work
Our Man in Beirut
Spouse(s)
(
m. 2015)
Websitenasriatallah.com

Early life

Nasri Atallah was born and grew up in London, United Kingdom, where he attended the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle. His parents, Samir Atallah and May Francis, are both British-Lebanese and were living in London at the time. His father, Samir Atallah, is a prominent Arab author, journalist and thinker, and the winner of many awards for his decades of contribution to Arab literature.[3][4]

Atallah moved to Beirut for the first time in 1997, finished school and read politics at the American University of Beirut.[5] He then headed back to London to study for a Masters in International politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies,[6] completing a dissertation on the Deterritorialization of Identity Through Transnational Media. After some further back and forth, he now resides in Paris, France.

Career

After his studies, Atallah worked at the United Nations Development Programme for 6 months, on the Arab Human Development Report, before joining Energy Intelligence, a company specialised in oil & gas research, when he was an analyst and writer. In 2007, he joined the wealth management firm UBS in London,[7] before quitting in 2009 to concentrate on creative pursuits.

During a brief stint at JWT as a conceptual copywriter, Atallah kept a blog entitled Our Man in Beirut which earned him notoriety amongst the Lebanese community both in Lebanon and abroad.[8][9] His often scathing criticism of social mores earned him both fans and detractors. The blog’s success led to a publishing deal with Turning Point books,[10] and the print version was released in December 2011 in Beirut, with book signings at Waterstones[11] in London and at the Salon Du Livre de Paris.[12]

From 2011 to 2017, Atallah worked at Keeward, a creative agency that accompanies and creates projects in the fields of media and technology.[13][14] Through a joint-venture with the company, he founded Bookwitty-Keeward's Artist-in-Residence program, Gate37,[15] in 2014. It has focussed on artists with a cross-cultural approach to music and storytelling, such as The Wanton Bishops, Lumi and Wake Island.[16]

From 2016 to 2017, he was Head of Media Partnerships for rapidly-growing book discovery platform Bookwitty.[17]

According to press interviews, Atallah has a second book in the works. While it was supposed to be a fictional revenge fantasy about the excesses of London’s Eurotrash subculture in the mid to late 2000s,[18] Atallah's focus has shifted to a Beirut-based crime novel. In 2017 he joined the acclaimed Faber Academy to complete work on the novel.[19]

Since 2018, he has been working full-time on writing and creative projects, including co-developing and hosting a documentary series about the Arab world. He is represented by United Agents[20].

Books
  • A Lost Summer: Postcards From Lebanon (Contributor), Saqi Books, 2008 (London, UK) ISBN 978-0863566868
  • Our Man in Beirut, Turning Point Books, 2011 (Beirut, Lebanon) ISBN 978-9953021102
  • Share This Book (Contributor), SHARE Foundation, 2013 (Belgrade, Serbia), Independently Published[21]
  • Beyrouth, Chroniques et détours by Mashallah News and AMI Collective (Foreword), Tamyras, 2014 (Paris, France) ISBN 9782360860517[22]

Music Management

From September 2012, Atallah launched the career[23] of the prominent Lebanese blues rock revival duo, The Wanton Bishops, through his role as their manager at creative incubator Keeward.[24] He has also worked with Egyptian electro-singer and producer Bosaina, Montreal indie band Wake Island,[25][26] and krautrock band Lumi.

Other Work

Atallah has also written for various publications, including The Guardian,[27] GQ Magazine,[28] Time Out, Brownbook[29], Little White Lies, Monocle and L'Orient-Le Jour. He also hosted a video series[30] at the Cannes Film Festival for 35mm From Beirut, where he interviewed leading Lebanese actors and directors such as Razane Jammal, Philippe Aractingi, Darina Al Joundi, Maroun Baghdadi's wife Souraya and Swiss rapper La Gale.

Atallah has also appeared on the BBC[31] and Al Jazeera English[32] as a commentator on Middle East affairs.

Personal life

Atallah is married to award-winning Lebanese fashion designer Nour Hage. The couple have been together since 2013.

References

Notes

  1. Interview in BMI Voyager Magazine http://www.nasriatallah.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Nasri_Atallah_BMI_Voyager.jpg Archived 6 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  2. https://www.unitedagents.co.uk/nasri-atallah-1
  3. Arab Media Forum – Samir Atallah http://www.arabmediaforum.ae/en/speakers/2013/speaker/samir-atallah-13.aspx
  4. President Sleiman awarded a medal of appreciation to journalist Samir Atallah http://www.presidency.gov.lb/English/News/Pages/Details.aspx?nid=19214
  5. American University of Beirut's Blogger Community on the Rise http://beirutnewsnetwork.com/mayadra/2012/10/11/american-university-of-beiruts-blogger-community-on-the-rise/%5B%5D
  6. An Alternative Asset: A review of Nasri Atallah's 'Our Man in Beirut' http://thedisgraceofgod.blogspot.fr/2012/01/alternative-asset-review-of-nasri.html
  7. AltCity Meets Nasri Atallah http://www.altcity.me/2012/02/nasri-atallah/%5B%5D
  8. CV on LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/nasriatallah
  9. AltCity Meets Nasri Atallah http://www.altcity.me/2012/02/nasri-atallah/%5B%5D
  10. Popular Beirut Blogger Releases Book http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-03/155947-popular-beirut-blogger-releases-book.ashx
  11. Waterstones https://www.facebook.com/ourmaninbeirut/posts/316940858348166
  12. Le Liban au Salon Du Livre Paris http://www.antoineonline.com/Article.aspx?id=37
  13. Lebanon Goes Digital By Alex Young | The Media Line | http://www.themedialine.org/news/lebanon-goes-digital/
  14. Keeward Team http://keeward.com/keeward-team Archived 21 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  15. Share Conference Talk http://www.shareconference.net/en/talk/nasri-atallah Archived 18 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  16. http://www.lecommercedulevant.com/affaires/medias-et-pub/none-liban/gate-37-maison-d-edition-20/24289 Le Commerce Du Levant | Gate37, maison d’édition 2.0
  17. Crunchbase | Bookwitty https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bookwitty#/entity
  18. 10 Questions for Nasri Atallah https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/10questions/10_questions_for_nasri_atallah
  19. I'll Be Writing A Novel At The Faber Academy For The Next 6 Months | http://www.nasriatallah.com/blog/2017/10/4/faber-academy-writing-a-novel
  20. Nasri Atallah United Agents | http://www.unitedagents.co.uk/nasri-atallah-1
  21. SHARE Foundation | Publications | http://www.shareconference.net/en/news/share-book Archived 3 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  22. http://www.rfi.fr/mfi/20140425-litterature-liban-beyrouth-chroniques-detours-tamyras/
  23. The Wanton Bishops at La Boule Noire Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrROA0y8-xs
  24. The Wanton Bishops Story on Keeward http://keeward.com/the-wanton-bishops/
  25. Wake Island on Keeward http://keeward.com/portfolio/wake-island/
  26. Meeting Wake Island With Nasri Atallah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbFW2JSG380&html5=1
  27. An insider's cultural guide to Beirut: 'a beautiful, rowdy, intoxicated mess' | https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/04/insider-cultural-guide-beirut-beautiful-rowdy-intoxicated-mess
  28. GQ India https://twitter.com/aratiGQ/status/308859612029935616
  29. Brownbook Magazine | The Falafel Issue Contributors | http://brownbook.me/the-falafel-issue/
  30. Playlist of Nasri Atallah Interviews for 35mm From Beirut at the Cannes Film Festival https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL41A1B228DD67415D
  31. BBC World Have Your Say, Is Syria Conflict Spreading? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M-UW5sbxCk
  32. The Stream, Stopping Sectarian Violence with a Selfie? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0eQeo4vbg&html5=1
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