Hussain was born in Tower Hamlets, East London to an English mother and a Pakistani father, both sculptors, and moved to King's Lynn, Norfolk at age 10.
[10] Supported by Film4,[11] Hussain's science fiction short film Naptha also featured at the 2018 Cannes Critics' Week.
[11] Under the working title Birchanger Green[14] and expanding on the themes and concepts in Naptha, Hussain started developing his debut feature in early 2019.
[16][17] Hussain has two projects in development, one set at a textile mill in 1970s Yorkshire and the other in World War II Burma.
[18] Hussain named Wim Wenders and Stan Brakhage films, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Todd Haynes' Safe (1995), and Éliane Radigue's music as influences on Sky Peals.