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Black-and-white portrait of director Tallis Wren looking upward

Music Video Director & Cinematographer

TALLIS
WREN

WREN_DIRECTOR

Portfolio

Step into the cinematic world
of
Tallis Wren

Tallis Wren, who signs his work Wren Director, shoots and directs music videos out of Lagos. His films pair wide, patient camerawork with street-level casting and bold costume design, so a three-minute song plays like a short feature. Whether the scene is a whispered duet or a parade of a thousand extras, he keeps the picture tense, stylish and always in motion.

Celebrating crowd with raised hands under warm stage light
KAYO – HOMECOMING (2025)
Black-and-white portrait of Tallis Wren with his camera
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Bio

Born and raised in Lagos, Tallis Wren (credited on call sheets as Wren Director) directs and photographs music videos for artists across West Africa. He is known for building entire neighbourhoods around a single song — streets, markets, parades and stadium nights that viewers feel they could walk into.

A string of energetic releases at the start of the 2020s led to “Homecoming” with KAYO, a street epic other directors still cite. Nominations from festivals and music-video awards across Africa followed, along with a name for sets that move to the beat.

My Approach

A Tallis Wren treatment starts with how the track feels, long before anyone scouts a location. He pictures each song as a setting with its own light, textiles and crowd, and then shapes colour, costume, camera moves and performance to match that mood.

His method combines a documentary eye with big-screen ambition: actual streets and actual faces, framed like film. He adds only what the song calls, so each shot carries a story, a mood and a sense of movement.

Education

Tallis learned his craft off the beaten track: church drama evenings, self-directed shorts, and a firm decision to pursue film after two unsuccessful rounds of university entrance exams. Today his work draws on street experience, discipline on set, a strong visual instinct and formal study of storytelling, acting and screen direction.

  • Diploma in Film Production

    Lagos Film & Broadcast Institute — Focus: directing, camera movement and visual narrative

  • Certificate in Theatre & Screen Acting

    Community Arts Fellowship, Lagos — Focus: acting, blocking and directing performers

  • Advanced Workshop in Music Video Direction

    Coastline Visual Lab, Accra — Focus: treatment writing, set design and artist-led camera work

Body of work

Accolades

Prize for Film
(2023)

Best Music Video
(2023)

Best Music Video Director of
the Year (2022)

Best Music Video
(2021)

Best Music Video Director of
the Year (2020)

Best Music Video Director of
the Year (2019)

Best New Director
(2018)

Testimonials

“Tallis doesn't shoot videos — he builds worlds and dares you to live in them. The day Homecoming wrapped, the whole street applauded.”
KAYO  ·  Recording Artist
“He heard things in my record I hadn't heard myself. Every frame of Forty-Five feels like the song is looking back at you.”
Deji Cole  ·  Recording Artist
“One treatment, one shoot day, zero stress. Tallis turns chaos into choreography and makes everybody on set feel like a star.”
Tunde Blaq  ·  Recording Artist
“Center Stage changed how people see me. Hire Tallis and let him work — he thinks in film.”
Rico Santana  ·  Recording Artist
KAYO

Press