Alex Ranarivelo was born in Saint-Jean-d'Angely, France. At a young age, his family moved to the United States, where he grew up.
After High School, Alex went on to attend the Art Center College of Design, where he graduated at the top of his class with a B.F.A in film production. His thesis film was a 35mm short film about street-racing called "The Last Race", based on his experiences as a street-racer.
He made his feature debut with a self-financed romantic comedy: "Alpha Males Experiment" (aka "Knuckle Draggers"). It won multiple awards on the festival circuit and placed in Best of Fest’s top 10 Comedies of the year.
Having proven his filmmaking skills with “Alpha Males”, Alex landed his first directing job: ”Born To Race", a teen action film that he co-wrote. This kicked off a long standing relationship with production company ESX Entertainment. That same year, Alex’s Western script “The Girl With No Name” won the Grand Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival Screenwriting Competition and was subsequently optioned by Co-Op Entertainment.
Impressed with Alex’s ability to direct both drama and action and to handle stories with a wide variety of tones, ESX hired Alex to direct 8 more films, many in the sports-movie genre. Most notably “American Wrestler: The Wizard”, starring Jon Voight, William Fichtner, and newcomer George Kosturos. The film won numerous awards and swept the Boston Film Festival with "Best Picture", "Best Screenplay", "Breakout performance", and "Best Ensemble."
A prolific, visual and collaborative storyteller, Alex prides himself first and foremost with the performances of his cast. He has worked with veteran actors such as Jane Seymour, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Sharon Stone, Lea Thompson, Tommy Flanagan and Kevin Dillon.
Alex is an avid car enthusiast and resides in Santa Monica, CA.
