Erik Hadife was born in 1998 in Beirut, Lebanon, into a family of filmmakers, with a director for a father and a producer for a mother. Excelling academically, he pursued degrees at LSE and MIT and worked in strategy consulting before the pull of storytelling became impossible to ignore. In 2024, he left the corporate world to focus on film, attending a filmmaking workshop at the New York Film Academy, where he directed his debut music video, Lola, shot in a single night. His work draws on a strong photographic sensibility, cultivated over years as an avid photographer.