Ionel was born in Bucharest, Romania, the son of Doru, a respected musician and actor, and Nicoleta Ionel, an economist. He grew up in Romania until 1990. Moved to Denmark for 4 years. He came back to Romania, and started to study Industrial Mechanics, music and theatre. Ionel spent all his free time in the opera house, at theatre or listening to George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra. In high school, the 10th grade he was expelled for his views regarding the remnant communist teachers after the fall of Ceausescu. He wrote his first musical, “The Red Bridge” and fled to Great Britain to study music improvisation and theatre. At the end of the first year he was cast in “Hair”, “Billy Elliot” and some medium rated plays. At the end he didn’t want to participate to any exams, and wrote a 20 minutes musical to express his ideas. He got back to Romania to finish high school, and worked with musicians like Nicolae Georoiu, best known for his work with Andrew Lloyd Webber Orchestra. He got back in Great Britain in 2005 and tried to study a few instruments - especially alto saxophone, but he didn’t have patience and engaged in training teenagers to sing his music and also to write music. In early 2007, after an European Tour he tried to produce by his own a Broadway musical in Romania, but failed. Since 2008 he is a dancer in amateur dancesport competitions.

Ionel’s music is often described as sad or depressing. The most powerful influences in his music are from Romanian popular music, Irish music, jazz and blues-rock. In a few interviews he said he is very influenced by the life in the city, “the cage in which humans live”.

Ovidiu wrote four musical theatre plays, until the age of 20 (“The Red Bridge”, “The Elevator”, “The Rain” and “The Bridge” with music by George Baicea) “The Bridge” has been played for 6 months in Bucharest where he was cast in the first role, and also 4 representations in Manchester and a few in other cities from Germany and France. Ovidiu says he is working a few long-term projects. He told us about a musical called “The Clouds Adventure”, a child drama, whose innocence is stolen by the city and a play called “Have you ever tasted the sky?” which he would like to turn it into movie also.

According to some teachers from the University of Manchester, Ionel's "music origins and lack of training raised doubts he can write a musical - often considered a would-be composer who can’t read music”. Ionel stated that he worked over 14 hours a day, seven days a week, to write his play: "I won’t sit back and allow myself to be discredited for the work I did by an asshole who thinks a composer can be trained only in a conservatory.”