Gareth Huw Evans is a Welsh film director from Hirwaun, but who is now based in Indonesia. He is best known for bringing the Indonesian martial art, pencak silat, into world cinema, in two of his films: Merantau and The Raid, the latter of which was featured in the Sundance Festival in 2012.

Evans graduated from University of Glamorgan with a MA in Scriptwriting for Film and Television, and had made his living helping people learn Welsh over the Internet. After directing a small-budget film called Footsteps, Evans was hired as a freelance director for a documentary about pencak silat. He became fascinated with silat, and also discovered Indonesian martial artist Iko Uwais, who was working as a deliveryman for a phone company. Evans cast Uwais as the star in the movie Merantau which was released in 2009 and was a cult hit. Evans planned to produce a larger action film, but scaled the production budget down, and created an action film called Serbuan Maut or The Raid.

Biography

Gareth Evans est né et a grandi à Hirwaun, Cynon Valley. Il obtient un Master of Arts en écriture de scénario de l'Université de Glamorgan. Après avoir réalisé Footsteps, un premier long métrage à petit budget, il est engagé pour réaliser un documentaire sur l'art martial indonésien : le Pencak-Silat. Fasciné par ce sport, il découvre Iko Uwais qui était livreur pour une compagnie téléphonique et l'engage pour tenir le premier rôle dans Merantau. Après le succès de ce film, il travaille sur un film à plus gros budget : The Raid (The Raid: Redemption).