Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Birthdate: Jun 30, 1988
Birthplace: Edegem, Flanders, Belgium
Adil & Bilall (birthnames: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah) are Belgian-Moroccan filmmaking partners who have become much sought-after directors for major Hollywood franchises, particularly the Jerry Bruckheimer-backed Bad Boys series. Adil & Bilall have been a filmmaking duo since meeting at Belgium’s Sint-Lukas film school, as co-filmmakers on features and shorts since 2014—except for two shorts (Adil as writer of Broeders (2011); Bilall as editor of Patient Zero (2016)).
Adil & Bilall were directors/writers/editors of their debut feature, Image (2014), followed by their acclaimed second feature with a cast of amateur actors, Black (2015), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival where it won the festival’s Discovery Award. Adil & Bilall then made (as directors/writers/editors) a short film, Hashtag (2017), and then returned to feature film mode as directors/writers/editors of Gangsta (2018), with Matteo Simoni, Gene Bervoets, and Axel Daeseleire.
Adil & Bilall made their huge leap to Hollywood as co-directors of the enormously successful revival of the Bad Boys franchise, Bad Boys for Life (2020), reuniting stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, with new cast members Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Nunez, Charles Melton, and Kate del Castillo, and proving to be the franchise’s highest grosser with a $426.5 million return for Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing. Adil & Bilall were co-directors and co-writers (with Kevin Meul and Jan van Dyck) of the terrorism-themed thriller, Rebel (2022), starring Aboubakr Bensaihi and Lubna Azabal, which premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival before a release by BAC Films/Wild Bunch.
Adil & Bilall returned to helm the fourth Bad Boys movie, the $100-million-budgeted Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), again starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and with new cast members Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Rhea Seehorn, and Tiffany Haddish, and again produced by Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films via Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing.
Personal Details
Adil El Arbi was born and raised as an only child by his Moroccan-born parents (market vendors) in Edegem, near Antwerp, Belgium. Bilall Fallah was born and raised by his Moroccan-born parents in Vilvoorde, Belgium, and in the Belgian capital of Brussels. El Arbi attended Catholic schools, even though his parents were Muslim. Adil & Bilall both attended Sint-Lukas film school, and both flunked out after their first year. El Arbi has been married to Loubna Khalkhali since 2021.
Filmography
actor
Previous (2)
- 2024 | Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
When their late police captain gets linked to drug cartels, wisecracking Miami cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett embark on a dangerous mission to clear his name.
- 2020 | Bad Boys for LifeasBad Boys for Life
Bad Boys for Life
Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett must face off against a mother-and-son pair of drug lords who wreak vengeful havoc on their city.
Some Facts About Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Game Winner: Adil El Arbi won the Belgian television quiz show, De slimste mens ter wereld (The Smartest Man in the World), in 2014.
Branding: Bilall Fallah stated in a Variety interview that the duo’s brand can be defined as “Adil and Bilall: in-your-face, entertaining, next-level shit. Hopefully, that will be the brand. Plus, we’re two Moroccan Muslims who aren’t about terrorism, so it’s awesome.”
Influences: Adil & Bilall have cited their filmmaking influences as Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Oliver Stone.
Failures: Adil & Bilall became friends and filmmaking partners at the film school they attended, Sint-Lukas, but they also both flunked out of the school after their first year of studies.
