How Zu Al-Kadiri Became a Link Between Worlds

Zu Al-Kadiri is no stranger to dichotomy. Born to Iraqi and Irish parents, he spent his childhood moving between the two distinct realities that were Iraq and England in the 70's and early 80's. As a result, the well-travelled producer is utterly familiar with the role of a creative bridge - the connective tissue between disparate ideas, places, and themes.

In the creative world, it’s an essential yet too often unsung skill. And in recent years it has helped build the foundation of Mayda, the creative studio with a uniquely open-ended approach to crossing the chasm between ideas and reality.

“If I have any kind of special talent, it’s been about being attuned to the differences - and the similarities - between human beings”, reflects Zu. “It’s ultimately about empathy, or the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand where they’re coming from. If you can get that right on a project, you get into this incredible space where the most talented people you can imagine, with diverse skill sets, are working entirely in simpatico”.

It’s a kind of creative atmosphere which feels incredibly natural, but takes a considerable amount of skill and expertise to create. And as Zu looks back on his formative years, it becomes increasingly obvious that his own production training began long before he ever formally entered the industry proper.

“My Grandmother in the UK would send VHS and Betamax tapes over to our family in Baghdad”, he recalls. “It would always be this eclectic pick-and-mix snapshot of Western culture. We’d have a recording of the Grand National horse race from three months prior that we could watch as if it was happening live, combined with classics of 50’s cinema like Oklahoma and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. These celluloid marvels from Hollywood’s ‘golden era’, along with what we'd see on Iraqi television  - lots of amazing Soviet cartoons, and films by Andrei Tarkovsky - gave us an education into just how diverse creative ideas can be”.

And, crucially, it was through those international care packages from Britain that Zu first fell in love with the world of production. “There were certain movies we’d watch over and over. One that jumps straight to mind is 'The Tamarind Seed', with Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif. Not a cinematic classic, by any measure, but something in these types of films connected with me”, he says. “Movies from that era radiated an appreciation of film craft - it really shone through. I knew I wanted to have something to do with that, even if I couldn’t fully articulate what ‘that’ was at the time”. 

The Power of An Idea

Like all the best adventures, Zu’s eventual path into production was a winding one. Off the back of a few years shadowing his nightclub-owning brother in Vienna, he found his way into the industry through the most unlikely of avenues.

“There was an ad on a door at my old University which was calling out for a Mandarin speaker to come and work on a Chinese feature film that was shooting in Oxford”, he says. “It was the perfect opportunity for me, but for one slight problem: I didn’t speak a word of Mandarin”.

Happily, Zu wasn’t about to let that minor obstacle get in the way. “I called them every day for a week straight. Despite my lack of language skills, I'd do anything they needed to be part of the production. I just knew I had to be on set”, he says.

Eventually, the production company relented. And Zu, bright-eyed and eager to impress, had his ticket into the world of filmmaking. For an EP who draws inspiration just as much from the process as he does from the work itself, it was something of a perfect entry into the industry. Surprising, but driven by a profoundly human love of film.

After stints working at MTV in London on various commercials and music videos, a medium that in many ways defined creative culture in the 90's, Zu packed his bags and moved to New York at the turn of the millennium. It wasn't long before he'd found a new professional home at The Mill NY, again building bridges, bringing intensely talented people together on some of the highest profile projects in the business.

And, now, that same ability is part of the DNA that runs through Mayda.

“Given we were coming out of quite high profile roles in an iconic company synonymous with VFX, we all made a conscious decision not to simply start another visual effects studio”, recounts Zu as he explains how Mayda came to life. “Granted, it might have made things a lot more comfortable if we had done that… but it wouldn’t have jived with our creative ambitions”.

It’s those ambitions which form the heart of Mayda’s offering. In a modern industry which can sometimes feel a touch behind the pace of culture and technology, Mayda’s model stands as an alternative capable of moving at the speed of ideas.

“We wanted to create a more open-ended structure that can recalibrate easily to best support the diverse range of  projects we're seeing”, he says. “When we suggest a solution it’s about the quality of the idea, not the convenience of the tools. We believe that the best work is built with tools but because of ideas - not the other way around”.

In the short time since Mayda started life, it’s an approach which has already found its experienced team creating a wider variety of projects than they might not otherwise have been able to.

Since its launch at the beginning of last year, Mayda has produced and directed TV commercials, cinematics for a horror video game, and is currently in development on a non-fiction live action show based on an existing piece of podcast IP. On top of that, the company is also in the final stages of launching a fully working prototype for a 5G-connected sports wearable which has been in development for over 18 months. In short, it’s been a busy introduction to the world for Mayda. Oh, and they’re also working alongside an academy award-nominated documentarian developing a new film about the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

Above: Some visual highlights from Mayda’s creative portfolio to date includes work for - from right to left - WNBA, Google x Nissan, Heinz, OnePlus, and EarnIn. 

 

It’s an illustrative example of Mayda’s method in action. Whilst the studio is able to move with the flexibility and agility of a young company, they can also draw on the expertise of founders and colleagues who have become some of the leading voices in their creative field. “We’re a start-up, but we’re not starters”, as Zu neatly sums it up.

Ultimately, it all comes back to the primacy of the idea. “Real artistry is about what’s in your brain”, notes Zu. “Manifesting those ideas into reality takes skill, but if you’re trading purely on your tools and not your ideas then I don’t think that’s a recipe for consistently interesting work”.

And consistently interesting work has become Mayda’s calling card. “With Mayda, there’s no limit to the shape your idea can take. It might be an animated TV series, or a commercial. It might be a sports wearable, a metaversal experience, or it might be anything in between. We can find the tools, the only real limit is our collective imagination”. In a moment of fervent AI-hype across the industry, it’s an impactful message. 

Regardless of breakthroughs in technology or efficiency, Mayda is a studio which aims to be defined by its ideas. For an ostensibly creative industry, it’s a refreshingly radical place to be. But for Zu, it simply feels like home.