Nasri Atallah

Nasri Atallah was born and raised in London, United Kingdom. He attended Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle. His father, Samir Atallah is a Lebanese journalist and author.^[1][2]

In 1997, Atallah moved to Beirut where he completed his secondary education and attended the American University of Beirut,^[3] studying politics. Atallah later earned a Master’s degree in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. His master’s dissertation focused on the deterritorialization of identity through transnational media.

Atallah’s early career included work at the United Nations Development Programme. He then worked in energy research and wealth management. In 2009 he shifted into roles in advertising, content creation, and production.

Working at J. Walter Thompson as a conceptual copywriter, Atallah opened a blog titled "Our Man in Beirut".^[4] The blog resulted in a publishing deal with Turning Point Books,^[5] with a print version was released in December 2011.

Between 2011 to 2017, Atallah served as head of media at a creative agency focused on cultural production in the Middle East, including music, publishing, and film.^[6][7] In this role, he managed the Lebanese blues rock duo The Wanton Bishops,^[8][9] Montreal indie band Wake Island,^[10][11] and krautrock band Lumi.^[12]

Since 2018, he has focused on creative projects in film and television as a producer and screenwriter, alongside writing creative nonfiction and fiction.^[13]

In late 2019, he co-founded Last Floor Productions with Firas Abou Fakher, a band member and composer from Mashrou' Leila, and Daniel Habib, a writer and screenwriting professor at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts.^[14] Last Floor Productions creates films and television programmes focused on stories about Arabs worldwide.^[15] The company's first production, the 10-episode psychological thriller Doubt,^[16] was written, shot, and released entirely during the early phase of the coronavirus lockdown in 2020. It was produced as a Shahid Original for the streaming service launched by MBC Group. Later in 2020, Last Floor Productions released a second TV series for Shahid, an 8-episode action comedy titled Fixer. The company has also created short documentaries for Apple^[17] and the Victoria & Albert Museum.^[18]

Atallah has written for various publications, including The Guardian,^[19] GQ Magazine,^[20] Time Out, Brownbook,^[21] Little White Lies, Monocle, The National,^[22] and L'Orient-Le Jour.

From 2018 to 2022, Atallah was a contributor to GQ Middle East.^[23] He has also written essays, such as his account of the August 4th 2020 explosion titled "Inside Beirut's Broken Heart".^[24]

In August 2022, Atallah was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Esquire Middle East^[25] by ITP Media Group.^[26]

He co-hosts the Bootleg Magic podcast with Alya Mooro and is a regular guest on the BBC World Service's The Arts Hour with Nikki Bedi.

• A Lost Summer: Postcards From Lebanon (Contributor) (Saqi Books, 2008) ISBN 978-0863566868
• Our Man in Beirut (Turning Point Books, 2011) ISBN 978-9953021102
• Share This Book (Contributor) (SHARE Foundation, 2013)^[27]
• Beyrouth, Chroniques et détours by Mashallah News and AMI Collective (Foreword) (Tamyras Éditions, 2014) ISBN 9782360860517^[28]
• Haramacy: A collection of essays prescribed by voices from the Middle East, South Asia and the diaspora (Contributor) (Unbound Books, 2022)^[29] ISBN 978-1800181328