Ismail was born in Taroudant and now lives and works in Tetouan. As a child, he preferred staying in to going out. He spent hours in front of cartoons on Spacetoon, then picked up a pencil and tried to redraw every character and scene he had just seen. His parents fed the habit with children's comics, magazines and animated shows on CD. What began as a hobby slowly became a love, and then a way of life.

He studied Applied Arts in high school, then went on to the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan, where he graduated in Comics. Along the way he worked on storyboards, illustration and cartoon character design with people in Morocco and abroad. He showed his work to the public at the International Book Fair (SIEL), and he led drawing, painting and collaborative mural workshops for children at the French Institute.

Ismail draws in his bedroom, which he has turned into a calm, dimly lit studio. He works both digitally and by hand, with a cup of aromatic coffee beside him and a podcast, a discussion or a story playing in the background. Two artist friends and a few cats share his home. The friends are also the first people to see his drawings, and he takes their opinions seriously.

With Agafay Books, he illustrates Alae Asli's trilogy The Ink. The first book, In the Name of the Ink, follows Soukaina, a teenage girl who always has a book in her hands, and Ismail draws her in every illustration. His dream is to become a recognized name in comics and to see his characters travel to readers all over the world. As for the children who open his books, his hope is this: "I hope children who read my book will feel drawn into the story, as if they are experiencing every adventure, emotion, and discovery alongside its characters."