Kai Neville

Dynamic Australian surf filmmaker; best known for his 2009 mega-hit Modern Collective, a game-changing take on 21st century aerial-based high performance surfing. Neville, described by journalist Travis Ferre as "the Guy Ritchie of surfing," specializes in clean, brightly shot footage, enjoys playing with foreground and background imagery, has a keen ear for obscure hard-rocking soundtrack cuts, and can throw shots at the viewer with a machine gun-like intensity. Every aspect of a Neville film is keenly judged with a fashion magazine editor's eye for style.

Neville was born (1982) in Adelaide and moved with his family to the Sunshine Coast at age ten. The son of a surf shop owner, Neville began surfing at age 11 and started making videos at 16, after buying a High 8 Sony Handycam with money saved while manning the cash register at his local McDonald's. After studying filmmaking at Griffith University, Neville joined the intern ranks at Australia Surfing Life magazine, where he produced giveaway promo DVDs. American video kingpin Taylor Steele soon hired Neville, and the young Aussie was the primary videographer and editor for Steele's 2008 movie Stranger Than Fiction.

Modern Collective, Neville's first major solo work, starring Jordy Smith and and Dane Reynolds, among others, was named the 2010 Surfer Poll Awards Movie of the Year. Lost Atlas, Neville's much-anticipated follow-up, premiered in 2011 to near-universal praise, including a review from Surfer's Journal, which lauded Neville for "defining the aesthetic of now." Neville followed Lost Atlas with a website/book project/lifestyle magazine called What Youth in 2012. His next film, 2012's Dear Suburbia, also won a Surfer Poll Movie of the Year award. Teenage shooting stars Kolohe Andino and John John Florence both had steller moments in Suburbia.