Born in berlin in 1968 to a french mother and iranian father. Started hitting cans and boxes at the age of 3, then took drum technique lessons at age 6. Moved to Los Angeles with parents and sister at age 10. Got thrown out of catholic school at 13 and moved to a small town in east France for 3 years. Became a punk rocker and started playing with different musicians locally. Moved back to LA in 1984 and started studying at the percussion institute of technology (PIT) in hollywood. Graduated in 1986 and became semi-professional, working day jobs ang gigging with different LA bands on week ends. Saved up money to join the berklee college of music (Boston) early 1989 and finished in june 1990. Played with various musicians who he met in berklee and started performing in the streets with percussion band OZAIN. Flew to europe with ozain and toured through different countries in the summer of 1990. Ended up staying in paris and has been living there ever since.

I have been playing with cellist vincent segal in a band called bumcello since 1999.

I started my solo project congopunQ in 2005. I´m playing all the instruments and and Dr. Kong is doing the visual performance.

I´m playing with french pop superstar called –M- since 1998

I have played with cheb mami, aswad, l´orchestre national de barbès, yves robert, cheb sahraoui et chaba fadela, geggy tah, mama ohandja, chocolate genius, alain bashung, brigitte fontaine, bernard lavilliers, princess erika, garland geffreys,susheela raman, maalem omar hayat, band of gnawa, stanley beckford - played concerts and recorded albums with these artists and more….

I composed music with my band bumcello for my sister Emilie Atef´s short movies and first movie called "molly´s way"

bumcello also composed for choreographer Bernardo Montet in 2000 , "Dissection d´un homme armé"