Famous French-speaking actors/actresses, filmmakers, and authors

One of France's most widely read authors of all time. His novel The Three Musketeers (1844) became a best-seller around the world.

Alexandre Dumas

French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the United States National Book Award. He is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince). The story follows a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite its style as a children's book, The Little Prince makes observations about life and human nature and one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published. Died at age 44 during an Free France Air Force's mission during World War II.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

French actress. She achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2001 film Amélie, a romantic comedy who won 13 awards in Europe and Canada, in addition to be nominated for five Academy Awards. It is to date the highest-grossing French-language film released in the United States.

Audrey Tautou

French actress as well as an occasional singer, model and producer. Considered one of the greatest European actresses. She won 23 awards for best actress in various film festivals and was nominated at the Academy Awards—Best Actress for her leading role in Indochine (1992).

Catherine Deneuve

This Haitian novelist and journalist fled Haiti and lived most of his life in Québec. In 2015, he became the first Haitian and Quebecer to be inducted at the prestigious Académie française in France.

Dany Laferrière

French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film The Barbarian Invasions (2003) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. His films have also been nominated three further times.

Denys Arcand

Great French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave, with his masterpiece The 400 Blows (1959) who received numerous awards and nominations, including the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director, the OCIC Award, and a Palme d'Or nomination in 1959, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1960.

François Truffaut

Born in Belgium, this writer lived in France, Québec, United States, and Switzerland. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works in mid-1900s. He is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.

Georges Simenon

French actor nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role César 17 times (France's national film award) during his career and won it twice, in 1981 and 1991. He was also nominated for an Oscar in 1990 for his role in Cyrano de Bergerac. Andie MacDowell and him shared the leading roles in the Hollywood's romantic comedy Green Card (1990).

Gérard Depardieu

French film actress and singer. She is the only actress or actor in history to win five César Awards (France's national film award). Her performance in The Story of Adèle H. (1975) earned her the first of two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Isabelle Adjani

French actress (cinema and on stage). Often described as "one of the best actresses in the world", she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Elle (2017) and a record 14 César Awards nominations (France's national film award) so far in her career.

Isabelle Huppert

French-Moroccan actor, comedian, screenwriter, film producer and director. Best known for his stand-up comedy sketches and for featuring in some France's blockbuster movies, such as Amélie (2001) and Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002).

Jamel Debbouze

French actor born in Morocco from Spanish parents. He has worked in French, English, Japanese, Spanish and Italian productions. He appeared in numerous blockbusters, such as Léon: The Professional (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Ronin (1998), Godzilla (1998), The Crimson Rivers (2000), and The Da Vinci Code (2006).

Jean Reno (born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez)

Belgian actor and retired martial artist best known for his numerous Hollywood action films, such as: Kickboxer (1989), Lionheart (1990), Death Warrant (1990), Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Nowhere to Run (1993), Hard Target (1993), Timecop (1994), Street Fighter (1994), Sudden Death (1995), The Quest (1996), Maximum Risk (1996)

Jean-Claude Van Damme

American novelist of French-Canadian ancestry and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation of the 1950s. He wrote the best-seller On the Road (1957). Film director Walter Salles adapted the novel to cinema in 2012.

Jean-Louis Kérouac (Jack Kerouac)

French novelist, poet, and playwright. He has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking between Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare. He wrote a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872).

Jules Verne

French actor and comedian. According to several polls conducted since 1968, he is France's favorite actor - having played over 130 roles in film and over 100 on stage. He was the lead character in La Grande Vadrouille ("The Great Stroll") (1966), the most successful film released in France until Titanic in 1997.

Louis de Funes

He was a playwright who helped create the Comédie-Française, France's national theater in Paris and has been dubbed the Shakespeare of France.

Molière

Raised in a poor family in Montréal where 17 of her 20 siblings died at a young age. She quit school in her early teens to work in a shoe factory, before being drawn to perform on stage. During her 74-year career, she has been a comedian, theater manager and artistic director. In the 1930's, she is known as the first woman ever to have directed two individual playhouses in North America, one of them being Montréal's most important theater at that time.

Rose Ouellette (La Poune)

This beloved actress rose to fame during the Belle Epoque era in Paris and earned the nickname 'The Divine Sarah.' She starred in some of the earliest films ever produced, including La Dame aux camélias ("Camille") (1911) that was acclaimed in both France and United States. She became an international idol and paved the way for actresses to come.

Sarah Bernhardt

French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest film stars. She became the second French person to win an Academy Award—Best Actress for her role in Room at the Top (1958).

Simone Signoret

French actor who got recognition for his performance in La Haine (Hate) (1995). He achieved wide recognition with English-speaking audiences for his performances in Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), as well as Eastern Promises (2007), Black Swan (2010), and Jason Bourne (2016). He is also renowned for playing the infamous French bank-robber Jacques Mesrine in Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One (both in 2008).

Vincent Cassel