Mikel Z. Castells will be the Jury for Best Sound Design at the next Imagineindia edition in 2022.

Castells grew up in a town on the Guipuzcoan coast called Pasajes San Pedro, although at an early age he moved to the city of San Sebastián, where he studied at the public bilingual institute.

At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to complete High School and thus reinforce his learning regarding English, studying two years in two different cities, the first in Clarksburg (West Virginia) studying at the “Robert C. Byrd” Institute. and the second in the city of Seattle (Washington), finishing his studies at the University “Edmonds Community College”.

In 2004 he moved to Madrid to start his career as a professional sound technician where he enrolled at the Instituto C.E.V. to carry out a higher degree in sound, thus acquiring the official certificate of “Superior Sound Technician”. He does the internship in the recording studio called “Sound Garden”, mainly focused on both sound and musical treatment in the advertising sector.

In 2006 he moved to Barcelona to start his career in the world of cinema, being hired as the first assistant of the designer and sound mixer Albert Manera in the studio “El camaleón sonido” where he established and integrated in the film industry working as first assistant in the sound design of international films such as Transsiberian (Brad Anderson), Life begins today (Laura Maña), 23-F: The longest day of the King (Silvia Quer), Ull per Ull (Mar Targarona) o Serrallonga (Esteve Rovira), besides being the first assistant in the mixes of the internationally awarded mixer Marc Orts in the films Ingrid (Eduard Cortes) and Suspicious Minds (Carlos Martin Ferrera).

In 2010 he left Camaleón to pursue his own projects, traveling to South Africa to record the direct sound of the documentary From the Streets to the fields about the World Cup with Andres Iniesta or Luis Suarez among others as protagonists. On his return, he was offered to design the sound of the film The last Passage (Enara Goikoetxea) for the Donosti Moztu production company.

In 20111 he returned to Madrid where he entered the world of television series, becoming one of the first two designers and mixers of the Globomedia production company with Adisar Media, designing and mixing together with Jose Ignacio Arrufat series such as Luna , the mystery of Calenda (Fernando Gonzalez Molina, Jesus Rodrigo, Antonio Díaz Huerta), El barco III (Jesus Colmenar, Fernando Gonzalez Molina, Carlos Therón), or Welcome to Lolita (Fernando Gonzalez Molina, David Molina Encinas, Sandra Gallego). After this stage, he began his most frantic journey in the sector, consolidating himself as a freelance technician for different production companies. In the cinematographic sector, he is in charge of sound design for films such as Fantasma (David Navarro), Stop Over in Hell (Victor Matellano), Los Encantado (Ricardo Dávila), Vampyres (Victor Matellano), Amor Tóxico (Norberto Del Val), Wax (Victor Matellano) or Vampus Horror Tales (Victor Matellano), in addition to working on the films Tierra de Maria (Juan Manuel Cotelo) and Esto no es una cita (Guillermo Gonzalez Groizard) as Foley Artist.

Participates as a direct sound technician in the documentary Politica, Instruction Manual by Fernando León de Aranoa. In the field of TV entertainment, he designs and mixes the sound of Talent shows such as Got Talent: Spain and Factor X, both for Freemanttle Media (both together with Eduardo Burgos), and programs such as La Sexta: 10 años viendonos (Atresmedia), Follow me the Roll (Secuoya), To the thinking corner (Secuoya) Special Envoy (Atresmedia) or Myths of food (Alberto Chicote). His contribution to the world of Documentaries is also notable, designing and mixing documentaries such as Hombres G: It Was 30 Years Ago (Warner Bros), New Girls 24 Hours (Mabel Lozano), Paso Corto, Mala leche (Mabel Lozano), Aguirre (Antonio Pelaez), El Cepa (Victor Matellano) or Everyone Wants to be the next Weissman (Alberto Triano). He also participates in series such as Velvet (David Pinillos, Manuel Gomez Pereira,, Carlos Sedes) as dialogue editor.

After this stage, Mikel returns to Globomedia to design and mix together with Jose Ignacio Arrufat one of the first series in Spain with great international success and most acclaimed by the public and critics called Vis a Vis (Jesus Colmenar, Alex Rodrigo, Sandra Gallego ), lasting this 5 seasons. Following the inertia of Vis a Vis’s success, he is also in charge of designing and mixing for Globomedia series such as Pulsations (Emilio Aragon, David Victori), The Accident (Ines Paris, Sandra Gallego, Iñaki Peñafiel, Jesus Rodrigo), Looser (Esty Quesada) ), Victim number 8 (Alejandro Bazzano, Menna Fité), Vote Juan (Victor Garcia León, David Serrano), I’m Alive (Jesús Rodrigo, Oriol Ferrer, David Molina Encinas), Vamos Juan (Borja Cobeaga, Victor Garcia Leon, Javier Camara) or La Valla (Oriol Ferrer, David Molina, Luis Oliveros). In addition to designing and mixing as Freelance for other production companies the family series (Rafa Montesinos, Iñaki Peñafiel, Antonio Recio) for the production company Programs and TV, La Sala (Manu Sanabria) for HBO or El Último Show (Alex Rodrigo) for TV of Aragon.

It is with the creation of the Vancouver production company that he receives the greatest international recognition by entrusting him to supervise, design and mix (together with Jose Ignacio Arrufat) the most recognized and internationally awarded Spanish series called LA CASA DE PAPEL (Jesus Colmenar, Alex Rodrigo, Koldo Serra), for which he makes himself known as a professional around the world. The success and recognition is such that he begins to design films for different countries, highlighting La Foquita: el 10 de la calle (Martin Cassapía) for Peru, (currently on Netflix), La Condesa (Mario Ramos), a co-production between the United States. and Honduras or The Nanny’s night (Ignacio L. Vacas) co-production between the US and Spain. Meanwhile, in addition to the 5 seasons of the paper house, he continues to design and mix for the Vancouver production company the two seasons of the series El embarcadero (Alex Rodrigo, Eduardo Chapero Jackson, Jorge Dorado, Jesus Colmenar) which also reaps great success being one of the most critically acclaimed series of the year.