Marco Gentile was born in Italy but divided his time between his native Milan, London and Paris before moving to Los Angeles in 2015.

Film captivated Marco at the age of 7 when his mother took him to see Federico Fellini’s “And The Ship Sails On”. After college he started working in music videos production and collaborating with directors on the creative side. Some of his ideas went on to become music videos and he caught the attention of Filmmaster, the largest production company in Italy. He began directing one year later. That same year he won a Fulbright Scholarship and went to the USA to study film at Emerson College in Boston and he graduated with a Masters in Film and Media Arts. He returned to Milan after graduation to shoot music videos for the major Italian artists as well as started to work in Commercials for Italy, Germany, France and the UK.

The spot Marco credits as his breakthrough is “Life n’ Roll” for Rolling Stone Magazine, shot with BBDO/DLV Milan and which won a Cannes Silver Lion. The BMW “Stories” Series was another award-winning fully integrated campaign that put Marco on the map. Since moving to the US Marco has been focussed on US commercials at the very highest level.

A visual storyteller infusing European cinematic style with American production values, Marco has been tapped to direct spots for a host of global clients, including Mercedes, BMW, SKY, Adidas, Vodafone, Orange, Nissan, Coke, Toyota, Volvo, Grey Goose and Lexus.

In 2026, Marco gave a TEDx talk, Time Does Not Rehearse, exploring imagination, human agency and what remains uniquely human in an age of artificial intelligence.