- Born
- Height6′ 2¾″ (1.90 m)
- Johan Renck is one of the most respected and sought after directors of commercials and music videos today, so much so that the French magazine CB News dubbed him "the number one director of commercials and music videos in the world".
His directing career started in 1992 when he joined the production company Mekano Film and Television in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1994 he left Mekano to join forces with childhood friend director Jonas Åkerlund. They established a new production company, Renck Åkerlund Films, which immediately became one of the leaders of its kind in Sweden. During the same time he worked with his music project, Stakka Bo, with big success and a lot of his time was occupied by the music career. In 1997 he started to work as a director full time and quickly became a well-known name worldwide and in 1999 he was working with Madonna and Nike among others.
Johan has worked non-stop all over the world and continues to work with many well known brands such as; Nike, Levi's, Mercedes, Dom Perignon, and H&M and artists like Kylie Minogue, New Order, Madonna, The Libertines and The Streets to mention a few. He has achieved prestigious nominations and awards for his work, such as MTV award nominations to his music videos to Madonna and Beyoncé and two Cannes Bronze Lions for the Nike commercial "Racing Marion". In 2005 he won an award for best video in MVPA and was nominated in several categories in CAD for his music video for The Streets. In Cannes he collected a Bronze Lion for the commercial Sagem and a Silver Lion for his campaign for "Karl Lagerfeld for H&M", this film also awarded Grand Prix in Eurobest and a Gold in Epica. In 2006, again he had several MVPA nominations, this time for his videos for Madonna: Hung Up (2005) and for Robbie Williams: Tripping (2005). In The Gunn Report Johan Renck was listed as the 25th most rewarded director of commercials. In 2007 Johans short film 'Cow', for SOS Live Earth, was nominated in Eurobest and in Epica Awards where it won the Bronze price.
Johan works within a variety of different media; films, commercials, music videos, theatre productions, art and music projects and still photography. He shoots stills for magazines like Italian Vogue and brands such as Diesel just to mention a few. Johan finished his feature film Downloading Nancy (2008), starring Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell, and Amy Brenneman among others. The film has its world premiere in the 2008 Sundance Festival where it also competed in the Dramatic Competition picked out of thousands of submissions.
Johan is based in Stockholm where he runs RAF. In the US and in England he is represented by high profile production company RSA/Black Dog, in France by Soixante Quinze. He is also highly respected by David Unger at ICM for feature film projects.- IMDb mini biography by: Renck Åkerlund Films
- ChildrenJack RenckBruno RenckHarriet Renck
- ParentsMarina KylbergHans Renck
- Has a music band named Stakka Bo.
- When directing television, he prefers mini-series, so that he can direct every episode.
- Runs his own production company with Jonas Åkerlund, R.A.F, or Renck Åkerlund Films.
- His song "Here We Go" was the very first to be played on the radio network 1LIVE, which launched on 1 April 1995.
- I've become more and more inclined in my work to discover what sort of emotions I like to portray. And I think my favourite emotion is melancholy and some sort of bittersweet darkness, which I think is a very Swedish thing actually. I totally think there is a Scandinavian melancholy. I don't think you can say exactly why, I suppose it is about light or weather conditions or something like that. Melancholy is a great feeling and if you feel a little bit it's very easy to dial it up by putting on a piece of music or whatever it is you do. You'll find Swedes -- maybe not as much as the Finns -- thriving in melancholy.
- [Talking about growing up in Stockholm's suburbs] I've never been a frustrated person because I learned at a very young age that the frustration I had inside of me had to do with creativity and the ability to transform that into action. I realized very early my restlessness had to be channelled into things I could do. I played in bands very very young. I painted, I did photography, all kinds of things. I was never frustrated. We did lots of little projects, we had fun. I never had the feeling of being trapped in a suburb.
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