Art & Culture

9 North African Creatives You Need to Follow Right Now

BYYassine Hariss

February 18, 2026

In an era where anyone with a Pinterest account claims to be a “creative director,” finding the right person to truly carry out a project from concept to execution feels increasingly rare. The title, which has lost much of its weight in recent years, has been diluted to the point of near-meaninglessness, reduced to a convenient label for those reluctant to admit that they’re still figuring out their way.

A clean Instagram grid and a last-minute mood board can manufacture the illusion of vision. Built off the back of recycled references, screenshots, and trend-chasing impulses, the masquerade fades the second coherence and informed taste become necessary. To give bones to an idea means making sure casting, visuals, sound, styling, copy, and rollout aren’t aren’t decorative add-ons, but structurally interdependent elements of a universe governed by a specific point-of-view.

What separates surface-level aesthetics from actual authorship is the practitioners who treat the role as more than just a title. These are the creatives who can articulate a vision, defend it, and shepherd it from first spark to final form without losing coherence. And we’ve gathered a selection of them in the roundup below.

Here, 9 North African creative directors worthy of the name and to consider if you ever need someone to take the lead and blow life into your next venture.

Zina Louhaichy (Morocco)

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Born and based in New York, Moroccan-Italian creative Zina Louhaichy dabbles in more disciplines than most manage to in a lifetime. With experience spanning acting, design, and artistic direction, the 22-year-old has a habit of always being one post away from breaking the internet. If her name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, her work almost certainly will. From the viral “All My Exes Live In Morocco” T-shirt that flooded timelines a few months back to the now-ubiquitous “Dima Maghreb” brass knuckles that have become a shorthand for diasporic pride, Louhaichy has a knack for creating objects that travel fast— both culturally and digitally— and we can’t help but admire the graft behind it all.

Youssef Ben Aissa (Tunisia)

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If we could place a bet on who’s about to become one of the region’s most influential creative minds, we’d put our money on Tunis-based all-rounder Youssef Ben Aissa— not out of blind optimism, but because the groundwork is already there, visible to anyone paying close enough attention to the underground scene in the tiny Mediterranean State. At just 20 years old, Ben Aissa can already be recognized among those shaping the scene not as a bystander or occasional collaborator, but as an active force helping define its aesthetic, energy, and overall direction.

The founder of his own clothing label, Bleed, as well as at the co-founder of Madmob, a hybrid collective, label, and production house that has quickly become a nucleus for emerging talent — recently directing Tunisian rappers Ktyb and A.L.A’s latest music videos — the young move-maker, despite being relatively unknown outside certain circles, is on the come-up, and no one can convince us otherwise.

Monica Abadir (Egypt)

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With credits at most major media titles across the region, and beyond, Cairo-based creative producer, art director, and writer Monica Abadir has spent the most of the past few years trying to capture the faces and places that make her native Egypt shine. Born and raised in Toronto before relocating to the Land of the Pharaohs in 2019, it is mainly through fashion, photography, and art, with the help of her background in mental health awareness, that she’s been able to approach storytelling with such sensitivity and cultural precision. Using Cairo as a living subject that breathes, contradicts itself, and constantly evolves, she frames the city not as a backdrop, but as a protagonist that’s just as important as the talent she spotlights.

Lyna Malandro (Algeria)

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Born in Paris to Algerian parents, Lyna Malandro is the kind of person who makes you reconsider your own time management, because somehow, at just 26, she’s managed to build a résumé that compresses what most would attempt over decades into a single, unusually coherent chapter. Active since her teenage years, she trained as an engineer while simultaneously making a name for herself across several different creative industries that only rarely intersect with her field of academic predilection.

At different points, she’s walked Fashion Week runways, directed projects, and developed concepts that sit at the crossroads of culture and social commentary, including FOOTEUSES, her documentary exploring women and football from underprivileged neighborhoods — a subject too often romanticized or ignored but rarely examined with nuance. Then there’s Vraies Meufs, a platform she founded in 2016, conceived as a space to spotlight women’s lived experiences beyond clichés, and the suffocating polish of hyper-curated online identities. Today, as a full-time creative, Malandro has helped define the visual identities of brands like Bret Johnson, Wrangler, and Sandro, amongst others.

Bechir Gueled (Mauritania)

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A film camera enthusiast that always has the lens pointed on what the eyes usually miss, Paris-based Mauritanian creative Bechir Gueled has made it his mission to place his home country on the map. In a climate where spectacle is often swapped with substance, his work moves differently, relying on texture, grain, and natural light to build atmosphere instead of volume. Leaning towards nostalgia, without ever tipping into sentimentality or cliché, his approach feels restrained in the best way, allowing atmosphere and detail to speak before anything else does.

Ahmed Razeek (Egypt)

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If you’ve been around the region’s cultural scene long enough, the name Razeek should ring a bell. Active for over a decade, he’s been the mind behind some of your favorite visuals — whether you realized it or not — shaping music videos, campaign imagery, and creative direction for a rich range of brands and artists. Cairo rapper Mond has tapped him; Egyptian luxury label Okhtein has too, and so has hitmaker Ahmed Saad. Years ago, he told MILLE he wanted to act as “a bridge” between the two cities he called home — Cairo and Paris. Fast forward to now, and that ambition no longer reads like a goal but an accurate description of his practice.

Ghalia Kriaa (Tunisia)

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Tunisian creative Ghalia Kriaa made a name for herself not just because she owns a camera, but because of what she does with it. And while technically she’s clicking the shutter the same way everyone else is, what comes out on the other side feels like it belongs to an entirely different universe, one that is shaped by her own mood–the one she’s chasing on set that day, and the story she’s set on telling without using a single word.

At this point, the Tunis-born and raised photographer-slash-art director has stacked enough credits to let them breathe on their own. A Playboy cover here, campaigns for brands like TrashyClothing there, and then a constant stream of portraits that seem to repeatedly circle around the notions of femininity, sorority, vulnerability, and the body not as trends to capitalize on, but as subjects she keeps returning to with always more curiosity.

Sally Sue (Egypt)

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Egyptian-Canadian by blood but unmistakably Moroccan at heart, Sally cut her teeth at Puma before relocating to the North African kingdom, where she’s since redirected her expertise toward spotlighting the multitude of stories waiting to be told. As a producer, creative, marketeer, and consultant, her work has led her to join forces and collaborate with many local and international labels, including Ami Paris, Nike during the last edition of AFCON, Moroccan rapper Dizzy Dros, Porsche, Karl Lagerfeld, and Turkish label Les Benjamins, to name just a few. Beyond client work, she is also the proud founder of Out of Office Creative Retreat, a women-only residency designed to create space for female creatives to reconnect with their practice, build meaningful networks, and engage with new cultural contexts.

Yazid Bezaz (Morocco)

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If there’s one mind we’d like to crack open just to see what makes it tick, it would hands down be Yazid Bezaz’s. Based out of the Moroccan South, in Marrakech to be precise, the young creative has stretched the idea of what it means to work within and beyond a scene, launching Somnii — a multidisciplinary hub where music, imagery, and community intersect — and in the process helping shape a new chapter in North African creative culture that’s grounded in artist autonomy rather than external expectation. Some of his most recent works include a stunning monochrome campaign for German-Moroccan label Trikko and tech-wear brand Soloman as well as the music video he directed for Moroccan up-comer OT SYgma.

9 North African Creatives You Need to Follow Right Now

Zina Louhaichy (Morocco)

Youssef Ben Aissa (Tunisia)

Monica Abadir (Egypt)

Lyna Malandro (Algeria)

Bechir Gueled (Mauritania)

Ahmed Razeek (Egypt)

Ghalia Kriaa (Tunisia)

Sally Sue (Egypt)

Yazid Bezaz (Morocco)

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9 North African Creatives You Need to Follow Right Now

Zina Louhaichy (Morocco)

Youssef Ben Aissa (Tunisia)

Monica Abadir (Egypt)

Lyna Malandro (Algeria)

Bechir Gueled (Mauritania)

Ahmed Razeek (Egypt)

Ghalia Kriaa (Tunisia)

Sally Sue (Egypt)

Yazid Bezaz (Morocco)

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