Jose Lorenzo “Pepe” Diokno a film director, producer, and screenwriter.

His creative journey began in high school at La Salle Green Hills, where he made short films and acted in stage plays. He then pursued a degree in film at the University of the Philippines - College of Mass Communication.

At the age of 22, Pepe made his first feature film, Engkwentro (2009). It premiered at the Cinemalaya Independent Festival and later at the Venice Film Festival, where it received the Lion of the Future - Luigi de Laurentiis Award and the Orizzonti Prize. Pepe followed this with two more feature films, Above the Clouds (2013), which premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival, and Kapatiran (2014), which was selected for the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

In 2016, Pepe joined advertising production company UxS, where he worked on projects such as the Kwentong Jollibee series, Safeguard Pabaon sa Buhay for P&G, and Maggi Kusinaserye for Nestlé. Pepe’s brand films have broken viral video records, and received recognitions such as Asian Academy Creative Awards, Effie Awards, and New York Festivals International Advertising Awards.

In 2023, Pepe returned to filmmaking with the historical drama, GomBurZa, which was both a critical and commercial success. The film won seven awards at the Metro Manila Film Festival, including Best Director, spent five weeks in cinemas, and debuted at #1 on Netflix.

The same year, Pepe was also selected for the Torino Script Lab in Italy, where he began developing a horror film. He is currently developing several films under his newly founded company, Kapitol Films.