Daph Nobody

Daph Nobody is a Belgian writer. He was born Daphnis Olivier Boelens-Bisazza on June 4, 1975.
Personal and professional life
Nobody grew up in a poor neighbourhood, which has influenced his work since he started to write. As a storyteller, he explores emotions from his own experience of life. His stories are about fear, desire, fantasies and madness.
Nobody grew up in a world of pictures and fantasy: his mother, Francesca Bisazza, is a painter, and his father, Benoit Boelens, a screenwriter (he is the author of Satori Stress (1983), directed by Jean-Noël Gobron). When Nobody was 11, he was living in a small flat he shared with his mother and his grandmother Nerea Noro (a famous painter, awarded with a Golden Medal in 1971 in New York, with a painting entitled Verso il Sonno Eterno/Vers le Sommeil Eternel).
Genres
Nobody has specialized in the fields of thriller, supernatural, science fiction and horror, genres that have traditionally been underrepresented and considered as sub-literature in Belgium and in France (there was once a tradition of paranormal literature in Belgium, but it vanished as the authors aged and died).
When he finished school, Nobody set to work, writing several thousand pages of short stories and novels. Ten years later, he is recognized as one of the most original and personal writers in the 21st century. He is also seen as the new voice, the new champion of a whole new generation of writers in the fields of “genre” literature and films in the French community. Critics have compare him to Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Shakespeare and Franz Kafka.
Nobody also works in screenwriting, drama, and has even written songs, some of which appeared in the play De la Mouche à l'Hameçon. Texts can be found from him in three different languages: French, English and Italian.
Literary works
His first work, a short story called Le Temps Mort/Jim se barre (Time out/Jim drives away), was never published, but was adapted in 1996 as a radio drama with, in the cast, Maryse Dinsart, Mufuki Mukuna, Michel Page and Nobody himself in the leading role. This first completed work is a mixing of genres, from roman noir to surrealism; the story pays tribute to grunge singer/composer Kurt Cobain, who had just died two years before.
Nobody participated in a number of contests as a film critic between 1995 and 1997, notably at the Brussels International Fantasy Film Festival (BIFFF) where he worked for Fun Radio, one of the most popular radio stations for young audiences. He also sent many short stories to literary contests, winning first prize on a multicultural website contest (titlepublishing, created by Giles Daoust, who later became one of his closest collaborators in filmmaking) with a short story entitled Blue and Yellow, written under the pseudonym Joey Sandman. He also won a literary prize at the BIFFF Fantasy Book Festival in 2002 (with a short story entitled Un Eternel Recommencement), his award was given in the presence of Henri Vernes, the father of Bob Morane. He was again nominated in 2003, at the same Festival, with another short story (Train d’Enfer).
Nobody published two other stories on titlepublishing (Cosmos, Histoire de Nuit, written under the Joey Sandman pseudonym), and another story in Khimaira Magazine in October 2000 (Le Rire dans l'Âtre, under the pseudonym John Nox). He also wrote a story in Italian (Incubo ad occhi aperti - L’Ultimo Risveglio), and another one in French that appeared on the website of the SACD/BELA in 2006 (Les Survivants Condamnés).
As Nobody began studying Modern Languages and Literatures at Université libre de Bruxelles, he increased his writing pace, and a first collection of short stories was published by a French publisher in 2003, Les Ténèbres Nues, and a second one in 2006, La Lumière des Au-Delà, gathered in what Nobody called Le Cycle des Ténèbres vol. 1 and 2. Each of them contained seven stories. In 2005, as he was already working as an actor and a writer on stage and movie sets, Nobody graduated with a special mention (Licence en Langues et Littératures Modernes + Master en Arts du Spectacle/orientation écriture et analyse cinématographiques). His thesis was a screenplay for a feature film, adapted from a never-released before novel: Du Sang dans l’Océan.
His novels had been previously rejected by publishers: his first full-length novel to be published (the fifth he wrote) finally appeared in bookshops in November 2009: Blood Bar - L’Emprise.
The covers of Nobody's first two short-story collections were provided by his mother. Both were 1970 oil paintings, La Mante Religieuse and Le Spectre de l’Aube
Film works
Four years after writing his first radio drama at the age of 21 (Le temps mort/Jim se barre), Nobody began exploring the film industry. He worked small jobs on movie sets (on Texas 46 directed by Giorgio Serafini, starring Roy Scheider and Luca Zingaretti), and finally began his career as a screenwriter with a feature film co-written with Giles Daoust: Last Night on Earth, starring Pierre Lekeux. He worked as Lekeux’s assistant at a film school one year later. Last Night on Earth is a production of TITLE FILMS, a young film company created by Giles Daoust, Alain Berliner, Serge Peffer and Daph Nobody after being awarded "BEST BUSINESS PLAN" at the "START ACADEMY" university contest devoted to the launching of young companies on the market.
Nobody was part of a “comité de lecture” at TITLE FILMS, with Giles Daoust and Alain Berliner, notably for the CINEQUEST contests in 2004 and 2005. Last Night on Earth was remade in the USA as A Broken Life, starring Tom Sizemore, Ving Rhames, and Saul Rubinek. He also wrote a feature film called La Liste Noire (2004) for Brahim Chkiri, worked on the Alley Goria project with director Tiago Mequita, he also wrote Les Péchés du Temps for producer Yasin Gürlek, and finally Fog Dogs (2010, in preproduction), for himself as a director.
As short films, Nobody is the author of Histoire d’Argent directed by Zeki Hacikerimoglu; this short was granted an international career with several prestigious awards and nominations, notably in San Francisco and Granada), and Une Nuit à rester chez soi which is scheduled to shoot in 2010, with Nobody and David Soyeren as co-directors.
Plays
Between 1999 and 2006, Nobody acted on stage (playing Beckett, Goldoni, Camus, Pinter, Koltès, Feydeau, Schmitt and others). His teachers included Christine Cavenelle, Florence Fosset and Serge Devos. After writing an adaptation for Bertrand Blier’s Les Côtelettes and for Alessandro Baricco’s Océan Mer, he focused on two original plays: De la Mouche à l’Hameçon (played on stage at the ULB Delvaux Festival in 2008), and The Fatman’s Fate/A Tale of Obsession programmed at the XL-Théâtre in 2010).
Work lists
Written
* Les Ténèbres Nues (Le Cycle des Ténèbres, vol. 1) (Société des Ecrivains, Paris, 2003)
* La Lumière des Au-Delà (Le Cycle des Ténèbres, vol. 2) (Société des Ecrivains, 2006)
* Blood Bar / L’Emprise (Sarbacane Editions / Actes Sud, Paris, 4 novembre 2009)
* 2000 : One short story published in the Khimaira Magazine (Le Rire dans l’Âtre) (written under the name of John Nox)
* 2001 : Best Short Story Award on a multicultural website (titlepublishing.com) with the short story Blue & Yellow (written under the name of Joey Sandman) + Several short stories published on Internet (titlepublishing.com - (Cosmos, Histoire de Nuit,…) (written under the name of Joey Sandman)
* 2002 : Best Short story Award (Un éternel Recommencement) at the Festival du Livre Fantastique related to the famous Brussels International Fantasy Film Festival (BIFFF)
* 2003 : Short story (Train d’Enfer) nominated at the Festival du Livre Fantastique related to the famous Brussels International Fantasy Film Festival (BIFFF)
* 2006 : One exclusive short story published on SACD/BELA website (Les Survivants Condamnés)
Filmography
Short films
* « Exclusion », Alexis Van Straeten, 2001, starring Benjamin Ramon (INSAS). (extra)
* « Casquette et Melon », Christophe Fourmy, 2003. (actor in a leading role)
* « Etude du Comportement et Structure sociale chez les Animaux », Bruno Frère, 2004. (actor in a leading role)
* « Le Journal du Séducteur » (based on Kierkegaard), Léonore Frenois/Cédric Delaunoy, 2005 (actor in a leading role)
* « Sirène de Lune » (based on a text written by Yvan Alvarez), Psyché Piras, 2006, 35mm. (actor coach only).
* « Histoire d’Argent », Zeki Hacikerimoglu, 2006 (screenplay + actor in a leading role) - Special Mention at the San Francisco Film Festival 2009 ; Nominated at the Barcelone Film Festival 2009 ; Best Art Direction at the Granada Film Festival 2009 ; Special Selection at the Ankara Film Festival ; Festival du Film Policier de Liège 2009.
* « Une nuit à rester chez soi », (screenplay + co-director) (on preproduction for 2010)
Feature films
* « Texas 46 », written and directed by Giorgio Serafini, starring Roy Scheider and Luca Zingaretti, 2000, USA/ITALIE (little jobs).
* « Last Night on Earth », Giles Daoust, 2003. (screenplay + actor) Nominee, Hollywood Discovery Award - Hollywood Film Festival (Los Angeles, USA 2004). Official Selection, Hollywood Film Festival (Los Angeles, 2004). Official Selection, Luxembourg International Film Festival 2004 for Last Night on Earth. Official Selection, Toronto Rebelfest Film Festival (Toronto, Canada, 2004). Official Selection, Festival Cinéma Nouvelle Génération (Lyon, France, 2004). Official Selection, Festival Songe d’une Nuit DV (Saint-Denis, France, 2004). Official Selection, EuroCiné25 (Brussels, Belgium, 2005).
* « La liste Noire », Brahim Chkiri, 2004 (script doctor + actor coach)
* « A Broken Life », Neil Coombs, 2008 (co-writer, film starring Tom Sizemore, Ving Rhames and Saul Rubinek)
* « Le Singe Roi », Frédéric Gibilaro, 2008 (actor only : Monsieur Chien)
* « Fog Dogs » (screenplay + director + actor) (on preproduction for 2010)
Radio
* « Le temps mort/Jim se barre » (screenpaly + director + actor), radio drama, 1996, starring Maryse Dinsaert, Mufuki Mukuna, Michel Page and Daph Nobody, 20’.
* « Train d’Enfer » (monologue read by Daph Nobody ; recording and mixing : Samuel Bovy, 2008)
Stage
* « En attendant Godot », Samuel Beckett, 1992.
* « La Marche », Christian Ruelier (monologue), 2000.
* « Chez les Titch », Louis Calaferte, 2000.
* « La Manie de la Villégiature », Carlo Goldoni, 2001.
* « Quai Ouest », Bernard-Marie Koltès, 2001.
* « L’Hôtel du Libre-Echange », Georges Feydeau, 2002.
* « Trahisons », Harold Pinter, 2002.
* « Les Justes », Albert Camus, 2003.
* « Les Côtelettes », Bertrand Blier, 2003 (+ author of extra scenes for the adaptation)
* « Palace », Jean-Michel Ribes, 2004.
* « La Nuit de Valognes », Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, 2004.
* « Tchin-Tchin », de François Billetdoux, 2005.
* « Caligula », Albert Camus, 2005.
* « Océan Mer », Alessandro Baricco, 2005 (+ co-author of adaptation for the stage)
* « Déesses ex-machina », Grégory Laurent, 2006 (U.L.B. Festival « Delvaux » 2006)
* « De la mouche à l’Hameçon » (U.L.B. Festival « Delvaux » 2008) (author)
* « Palace », Jean-Michel Ribes (Théâtre du Vaudeville, 2008).
* « Amour, Amour, quand tu nous tiens » (2009, guest actor)
* « Princesse Talia » (2009, Grottes de Han, based on a text written by Jean-Claude Servais) (actor)
* « The Fatman's Fate/A Tale of Obsession » (2010, XL-Théâtre - author/director/actor)

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