Cesare Suraj Darzi was born to forward-thinking, free spirited parents in 1982, London. His father, Romesh, worked as a postman, and his mother Radha was a pharmacist. Decently active within the Indian/South East Asian community within London at the time, Cesare grew up an independant, intuitive kid fascinated by the different stories around him. His love of stories, read, watched, and created, was fosted by creatively-minded parents and Cesare thrived academically with the goal of pursuing filmmaking. He was eventually accepted into Central St. Martin's film program where he studied screenwriting, editing, film production, art direction, and digital cinematography among other subjects. He graduated in 2002, when he was twenty years old. Together with a slightly better-connected classmate, Cesare founded his first production company, Borderline Films.
His first short film, Buy It Now, won the Cannes Audience Award in 2005, as well as the Cannes Cinefoundation Award. He moved out of his parents' house finally and into a flat of his own, at age twenty-three. In 2007, his short film The Last 15, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. With this industry recognition behind him and the production company, he was able to secure funding for his first feature-length film, Afterschool, which he both produced and directed. It premiered at Cannes in 2008 Un Certain Regard and was nominated for an Independant Spirit Award.
In 2010, he attended the Sundance Film Festival to support Two Gates of Sleep and there met James Doole, who was supporting her film Blue Valentine. They slept together, resulting in James' pregnancy. Though not a couple, Ces was enamored with her and eventually supported keeping the pregnancy, which resulted in the birth of Meena Clementine Darzi-Doole on September 3, 2010. When it became clear that James' schedule and skyrocketing fame would not allow for exceptional parenting, Cesare took custody of their small daughter and continued to work as he was able. Borderline Films gained further recognition after the positive reception of the BF-produced Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Ces continued to work on his own material, with plans to continue both writing and directing. In 2012, he wrote and directed Simon Killer, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. He next wrote The Sleepwalker, which premiered the same year James decided to move to NYC, in 2014. Banking on the idea that his production company might find new avenues in the Americas, and unwilling to separate mother and child via the Atlantic, Ces and Meena followed James to New York, where they eventually settled in Brooklyn.
Cesare's subsequent project Childhood of a Leader was filmed early 2015, and premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won Best Director. Cesare now feels firmly accepted by the film community, he is confidant in his abilities and his career path and hopes to make the most of it with future projects.
Cesare's natural state is somewhere between quiet neuroticism and confidant capability. He has the basic common sense skills mastered; he is appropriately cautious, reads the directions on everything, never combines medication, errs on the side of caution, and asks his mum if he can't figure out something for himself. On the negative side, he can be passive aggressive, normally aggressive (when pushed to agitation), and a bad team player, believing things would go easier if you just let him do the thing. As a father, Cesare is more of a friend than a disciplinary figure, but as Meena is only six and generally well-behaved, this isn't yet an issue. He is more patient with her than grownups, and is very hands-on - he prefers to walk her to school when he is able, and only schedules the nanny when he's actively out of the house. Consequently he and his daughter are close and share interests such as films (Miyazaki), activities (going for walks and people-watching/commenting), and food (sushi). As a director, he is collaborative and naturalistic, generally pleasant to work with. As a friend or lover, Ces is "boring" because sometimes he brags about his kid, and can be seen as distant or flighty because of his familial preoccupations. He holds truth and trust in high regard and while he's fairly liberal with forgiveness, he prefers not to forget if someone has wronged him. Ces is crap at small talk, rarely drinks anything more than a pint with dinner, and enjoys marijuana on a recreational basis.
Cesare is one of those "who dis" kinds of celebrities that have gained a loyalish following but remain generally unrecognizable to the population at large. He has a pocket of dedicated fans who follow his work and his private life closely enough to post about it on the internet, but he is able to walk his daughter to school and ride the subway without any difficulty. It's only when he's with baby mama James that he gets stared at. The media cover him as needed and regard him as a kind of weirdo wunderkind, a relative outsider who makes films about the creepier things in life, and are often more interested in his rocky relationship with James Doole than his professional work. His name is much more recognizable than his face.
» He and his daughter are in the US on greencards, they are resident aliens.
» Lovehates the mother of his child, actress and fellow producer James Doole. She's amazing, but terrible.
» Is 3rd generation Indian-British; is generally assimilated, culturewise. Raised by atheist parents, currently identifies as an atheist.
» Plays cricket, but is crap at it.
» Bit of a stoner, though not around the kid.