Brand started his career at the age of sixteen, when he directed his first music video for the Colombian band
Pasaporte, the song "Igor y Penélope". His first job in the
United States consisted of recording
voice-overs for phone companies. After graduating with honors, Brand founded his own production company called
Kree8, with which he has produced most of his commercials and music videos. Before filmmaking, he began studying
Communications,
Advertising, and
Epistemology at the
Pontifical Xavierian University in
Bogotá, Colombia, where he also worked at a local radio station as a broadcaster. For his first film,
Unknown he was able to bring together a cast made up well-known Hollywood actors, such as
Jim Caviezel, and
Greg Kinnear. The film raised more than US $17 million worldwide. His second feature film
Paraiso travel, released in 2008, was the highest-grossing movie in
Colombia that year.
Time magazine named it as one of the best Latin American movies of the first decade of the century.
Margarita Rosa de Francisco,
John Leguizamo, and
Ana de la Reguera were some of the recognizable Latin American actors that took part of the film. In 2006,
Variety magazine named Simon Brand one of the top 40 most influential Latin Americans in Hollywood. He has been nominated for several awards such as the
Grammy Awards (nominated four times),
MTV Video Music Award,
Clio Awards, and Telly Awards. ==Filmography==