From a young age, Russell was fascinated with movies he recalls how his father would leave VHS tapes recording on the movie channels. Then every time he saw him would give him a box of potluck tapes to watch.

Russell was expelled from school at the age of fifteen he worked numerous different jobs from being a market trader to working in call center's to a barman in nightclubs to construction worker to name just a few. He would attend acting classes whenever he could afford to and would write screenplays in his spare time. He went on a holiday to Thailand where he met people who worked in film and decided by doing stand in jobs on u.