Isaac Julien is a photographer, installation artist and filmmaker. He was born in 1960 in London. He went to St Martin's School of Art, where he studied painting and film. He later went on to create the Sankofa Film and Video Collective, and was a founding member of Normal Films.

In 2001 Julien was nominated for the Turner Prize for his films The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999) and Vagabondia (2000), made in collaboration with Javier de Frutos.

Julien is interested in breaking down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, including film, dance, photography, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting them to create a powerfully visual narrative.