Jean-Bernard Marlin grew up in Marseilles and then moved to Paris to study. After receiving his  diploma from the Louis Lumière cinema school and completing a Screenplay Workshop with the Fémis  school, he directed Thick-Skinned in 2007, a short that was selected and received awards in numerous  international film festivals (Best short at the San Francisco Film festival), Quelque chose de féroce  in 2012, a documentary about a juvenile delinquent, and then The Runaway in  2013, which received the Golden Bear for best short film at the 2013 Berlinale and was nominated for the 2014 Cesars.

Also profoundly interested in acting, he trained in several different acting methods.  Today, he gives drama classes in several schools in Paris and the surrounding towns. Sheherazade, entirely filmed with non-professional actors, is his first feature-length film.