Fabien Dao was born in Paris to a French teacher mother and a Burkina Faso filmmaker father. After studying science, his passion for music and cinema led him to study at the sound department of the École nationale supérieure des métiers de l'image et du son in Paris. There he directs The Boromo's Caïman. In 2017 he made It Rains on Ouaga and in 2019 he concluded the trilogy about his father with Bablinga.