Káel earned a degree in structural and architectural engineering in 1986 from the Technical University of Budapest's Department of Structural Engineering. In 1989, he graduated from Budapest's College of Theatre and Film Arts, where he studied film and television directing under teachers Károly Makk, István Szabó, Gyula Gazdag, Elemér Ragályi and György Illés.
After serving as a manager at the Balázs Béla Film Studio from 1989 and 1990, he went on to work at Novofilm Kft between 1990 and 1993. In 1990, he took part in the East-West Producers Seminar in London under the tutelage of Lynda Myles and David Puttnam. In 1990, he founded the Happy End Advertising Agency, later becoming its creative director. A member of the Association of Independent Hungarian Producers from 1995 to 1998, he became founder and executive director of Z+ Hungarian Music Television. In 2001 and 2002, he served as artistic advisor for the Millenéris Theatre and Television Studio, where he developed the core concept for that institution. Starting in 2002, he spent two years back at the (by then) University of Theatre and Film Arts working on his DLA before joining Müpa Budapest in 2005 as an artistic advisor responsible for putting together the institution's opera programmes. Following a stint at the Novus School of Art from 2006 to 2007, he has been teaching at the Werk Academy since 2008. He has been the CEO of Müpa Budapest since 17 March 2011, and on 15 August 2013 was appointed chairman of the body that runs both the Budapest Spring Festival and the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival.
Filmography
1986 Fradika (documentary film about Ferencváros Football Club)
1987 Nem[Humdrum] (short film drama)
1987 Hagyományainkból [From Our Traditions] (dance film with the Kodály Dance Ensemble)
1988 A másik szoba[The Other Room] (television drama)
1989 Az új generáció választása[The Choice of the New Generation]
1991 What about H? (short Danish-Hungarian film drama)
1991–1993 Novomoda (fashion programme series broadcast on Hungarian television)
1993 Elindultam szép hazámból[I Left My Beautiful Homeland] (film portrait of opera singer Ilona Tokody)
1994 Kötéltáncos a szocializmusban [Walking the Tightrope in the Era of Socialism](film portrait of Tibor Liska)
1995 Szól a világ [The Sound of the World] (dance film of Béla Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances)
2000 Film on Hungary at Hungary's pavilion at the Hannover World's Fair
2005 Bartók 2005 (documentary film on Béla Bartók)
2006 Orgona Ünnep - Párizs (documentary film on the Paris organ festival)
2006-2007 Szalon [Salon] (cultural fashion series broadcast on Duna Television)
2007 Mester és a tanítványok [The Master and his Apprentices] (six-part documentary film series on camera operator György Illés and his students)
2008 Mert én itt születtem [Because I Was Born Here] (documentary film)
2008 Kézjegy [Hallmark] (film portrait of composer László Dubrovay)
2010 Image film for the Hungarian pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo
2013 Munkácsy (two-part documentary film about Mihály Munkácsy)
1987-2010 More than 600 film trailers
1987-2010 28 music video clips
Festivals
His creative works have been screened and performed at events in the following cities and towns: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Palm Springs, Portland, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. (USA); Palić (Serbia); Jerusalem (Israel); Singapore; Łódź (Poland); Calcutta, Mumbai, Madras, Pune, Trivandrum (India); Istanbul (Turkey); Dhaka (Bangladesh); Barcelona (Spain); Lima (Peru); Tokyo (Japan)
Theatrical work
1999 Mozart: Così fan tutte (Budapest Castle District Hilton Hotel, Dominican Court)
