Nathanaël Van Hoecke was born in Leuven (Belgium) on March 21, 1987.
From early on, he immerses himself in ‘the cave of Ali Baba’ of his father who is a storyteller: hundreds of children's books, historical books, storybooks,… he takes into his own room one by one. He discovers a world of dreams and imagination. A passion for creating images and stories is born. Comics such as Thorgal, Johan and Peewit, The Bluecoats and many others fascinate him. In addition, he devours countless peculiar animated series on television: Les Contes de la rue de Broca, le petit Vampire, Batman, Darkwing Duck, Pingu, ...
Because he spent his childhood in a small Brabant town along the linguistic border, he jumps quickly from one to the other side. Hereby the two languages have no secrets for him. Does he dream in Dutch? Does he draw in French? Does he write in English? The stories and images go far beyond language: They have inspired him during his studies of landscape and garden design which he completed with success and has practised for a year in the landscape office Pauwels in Leuven. Open to the world for new influences and ideas, he remains interested by creations of Sylvain Chomet and Tim Burton.
The click is released suddenly, the making of Wall-E from Pixar pushes him beyond his many self-taught learnings. He got involved in a new adventure to obtain a master's degree in animation at the Lucas School of Arts of Brussels. In 2015 he graduated with distinction with his graduation film "Street Poker".
He currently lives in Brussels, a city full of diversity, creativity and inspiration.