Writer and director Alex Salam was born in America to a French mother and an Egyptian/Irish father. He is an infectious diseases doctor with a PhD in Pandemic Science and Masters in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology. Before transitioning to filmmaking he worked in some of the world’s most challenging environments including a year with the European Space Agency at the planet’s most isolated research station in Antarctica, managing an Ebola hospital in Sierra Leone during the West African outbreak, and responding to global disease outbreaks for the UK government.

His debut short film CRASHING screened at multiple Oscar and BAFTA qualifying festivals and received a special mention for the Oscar-qualifying Light in Motion Prize at Foyle Film Festival. He was one of six writer/directors selected for the inaugural National Film and Television School Sean Connery Talent Lab in 2024/2025 and is a winner of the 2024 BAFTA Rocliffe Writing Prize for his feature screenplay SILENCE. His latest short film TWENTY TWENTY completed as part of the Sean Connery Talent Lab and executive produced by the BBC will premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2025.