Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised across London, Texas and Lagos, Meji Alabi grew up exposed to cultures that would later become central to his creative identity.
Today, Alabi is one of the most recognisable Nigerian-British directors working across music, advertising and film. His portfolio includes visual projects for Beyoncé, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Davido, Rema and Stormzy, as well as campaigns for global brands including Guinness, KFC, Toyota, Martell and Nike.
From Accounting to the Camera
Meji Alabi studied accounting and finance at the University of West London, initially contemplating a conventional career. Instead, photography and an interest in creating things gradually pulled him towards filmmaking. He taught himself photography after realising he needed better images for websites he was building, and his interest eventually expanded into video production.
While studying, he began taking photographs and experimenting with video. A request from a rapper friend to make a music video became an early turning point. Without formal filmmaking training, Alabi taught himself the technical aspects of shooting and returned to make the video.
In 2014, he co-founded JM Films with Jimi Adesanya, establishing a production company focused on music videos, commercials, film and other creative visual work.
One of his early breakthroughs came with Seyi Shay’s “Murda”, which brought him industry attention and earned a nomination at the MTV Africa Music Awards. He followed that with videos including Seyi Shay’s “Crazy” featuring Wizkid and Maleek Berry’s “Kontrol”, steadily building a reputation for visually ambitious work.
Creating a Unique Visual Language for Afrobeats
Alabi’s work is often characterised by colour, movement, elaborate choreography and a strong sense of place. Yet his approach is not simply about making music videos look spectacular.
He has repeatedly described music as the starting point for his visual process. The music itself often triggers the imagery and ideas that eventually become the video.
His credits include Davido’s “Assurance”, Tiwa Savage’s “Ma Lo” featuring Wizkid, Wizkid’s “Fever”, “No Stress” and “Ginger” featuring Burna Boy, as well as several of Burna Boy’s defining visuals, including “On the Low”, “Gum Body” featuring Jorja Smith and “Monsters You Made” featuring Chris Martin.
The Beyoncé Moment
One of the defining chapters of Alabi’s career came through Beyoncé’s Black Is King. Released in 2020, the visual album drew heavily on African artists, designers, musicians and filmmakers. Alabi worked on the Nigerian chapter of the project and was credited as a co-director on the Grammy-winning “Brown Skin Girl” video, alongside Ibra Ake and Jenn Nkiru.
The project placed an African creative perspective inside a global pop-cultural production led by one of the world’s biggest artists and for Alabi whose career had developed partly through his relationship with African music and culture, the opportunity reinforced an idea that had increasingly shaped his work: African stories did not need to be filtered through someone else’s visual vocabulary to travel internationally.
He later signed with Black Dog Films, part of the Ridley Scott Creative Group, and later became associated with RSA Films, working across music videos and commercial productions.
Alabi has spoken about the limitations and possibilities of the format: music videos give directors only a few minutes to build a world, experiment with characters and develop a visual idea. Feature filmmaking, by contrast, provides the time to explore a story in greater depth.
In 2021, he directed Zero Malaria: Draw the Line Against Malaria
In 2023, he co-directed Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever, a three-part Disney+ documentary series exploring the creation of the music for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The project took him across different locations and musical cultures while documenting the work of composer Ludwig Göransson and artists involved in the soundtrack. Marvel and Proximity Media list Alabi alongside Bernardo Ruiz as director.
His latest work released in 2026 was “Surviving Biafra” (co-director with Leke Alabi-Isama, BBC Africa Eye)
Water and Garri: Stepping Into Feature Films
In 2024, Alabi made his feature-film directorial debut with Water and Garri, starring Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage. The project began in an unconventional way as Tiwa Savage had initially approached Alabi about creating visual material around her Water and Garri music project. As the concept developed, the collaborators expanded it into a feature-length narrative. Alabi subsequently directed and helped develop the story.
Savage plays Aisha, a successful fashion designer who returns to her childhood home and confronts unresolved questions about her past. The film also stars Jemima Osunde and Mike Afolarin.
The move from three-minute music videos to a feature film marked a new stage in Alabi’s career. It demonstrated that the visual instincts that had made him successful in music could be applied to longer-form storytelling.
He has grown to become a director, photographer, producer and creative entrepreneur whose work stretches across entertainment and advertising. His commercial portfolio includes major international brands, while his film work increasingly takes him into documentary and narrative storytelling.
His creative philosophy is similarly expansive. In interviews, he has spoken about curiosity, reading and continually discovering new subjects as important influences on his work. He has also expressed a desire to tell longer-form, authentic African stories.
That ambition places Alabi within a generation of African filmmakers benefiting from the globalisation of African popular culture while also helping to drive it.
