In the suburb of Laval, Montreal, Basil (pronounced as BAH-ZEL) was only eight years old when he decided he wanted to be in the film industry. He was watching The Godfather, often under his father's supervision, though at times he'd sneak in front of the television when nobody was looking, and he relentlessly tried to master the way Marlon Brandon spoke. He joined the local children's , where he struggled to make friends because of his often arrogant attitude ("I should have the lead role, me!") and inability to share, but he went on to pursue it more seriously while he filmed about a dizen short films in high school. It wasn't easy getting a scholarship for the New York University, but it was just something that Basil wanted to happen, had always dreamed of achieving because of the prestigious film programme that he's wanted ever since he hit puberty. Even though it estranged him from the number of friends that he actually got around to making growing up in his neighborhood, his work ethic was clearly something else. If he needed to, he would work all day with no sleep, and the taste of success would be worth every single bead of sweat, blood, and tears. If it was going to happen, he was going to do it himself.

Perhaps his independent streak came from his father's death when he was eleven years old. Bruce Trevor had been Basil's biggest supporter, being quite the film buff himself. He had everything to thank his father for, for leading him to the current life that he leads. Sadly, when Bruce was at the wrong place at the wrong time, he was killed by a pair of robbers taking over a jewelry store, the shot to his chest killing him before he could make it to the hospital. Neither Basil nor his mother, Atiqa, handled it well. Though they had a nomral mother-son relationship prior to Bruce's death, they became more distant toward each other, and for the longest time, Basil would blame his mother's seemingly constant hot-headedness, impatience, and utter rudeness to him while he was growing up. While he learned to be alone and give himself the support he needed to pursue his dream, he also learned to keep close those who cared and loved him. It was two years after the death that Atiqa got pregnant with another boy and then married the father, Jimmy. Displeased by this, Basil spent less and less time at home and had an extremely rocky relationship with Amr, who was to be his baby bother.

When Basil moved to America to study film, his relationship with the rest of his family seemed to lighten up, though he's positive it's only because he wasn't constantly spending time with them. With some struggle, his first feature film, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, I Killed My Mother, was written while he was in NYU and filmed when he visited Montreal again for the summer. The film had clear signs of being based off of his relationship with his mother, which may have been the most honest thing that he had ever done. After some awkwardness, Atiqa decided to amend his relationship with her son. Though they are unable to return things to how they were, Basil currently feels like he's beginning to be part of their family again. And while Basil can be very proud of his own work, the experience was extremely humbling. Later on, he directed and wrote his latest film Mommy as a love letter to his mother, and it awarded him with the Jury Prize in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and a standing ovation.

I Killed My Mother, through the persistence of his professors in NYU, premiered in the Director's Fortnight program of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and the feedback Basil received was more than overwhelming. The film received an eight minute standing ovation in its premier and won several awards in film festivals all over the world. Finally truly receiving conformation that he was doing the right thing in his life, he pursued the career, directing and writing more films.

His next films, Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways, and Tom at the Farm saw significant success in its film festival circuits and several film critics, though Basil has been accused by some of them for being too self-obsessed, especially after Tom at the Farm, a film in which he starred in and directed, allowing several close-ups of his face. In a moment of weakness and possible intoxication (he would never confirm himself), he spoke about on Twitter with: "haha guess i'm a narcassist afterall! kiss my ass :)" though in truth, he was frustrated that somebody had chosen to give him a negative review because of it. Generally, he would like to continue what he does and do things his own way despite any criticism, though he has thought about not starring in his films again.

Currently, he resides in an apartment in the middle of Soho with his cat, Alceste. He has just finished writing his first English film called The Life and Death of John F. Donovan and plans to begin filming early next year. For the mean time, he has decided to reward himself with a short break until 2014 is over so he can steel himself from being disappointed, since he anticipates that while he is Canada's entry for Best Foreign Film in the 87th Academy Awards, there is only he a slight chance that he'll actually become a nominee, as the same thing happened for his first film.