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Mélanie Laurent is a Actor, Director and Scriptwriter French born on 21 february 1983 at Paris (France)

Mélanie Laurent

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Nationality France
Birth 21 february 1983 (41 years) at Paris (France)
Awards Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres‎

Mélanie Laurent (born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, model, director, singer and writer. She initially rose to prominence for her performance in the 2006 French drama film Don't Worry, I'm Fine for which she later won the César Award for Most Promising Actress and the Prix Romy Schneider as well. Laurent further became known to international audiences for her starring role as Shoshanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which she won Best Actress from the Online Film Critics Society and the Austin Film Critics Association and then also starred in one of 2013's top-grossing Hollywood films, Now You See Me.

Laurent's other notable works include Dikkenek (2006), a Franco-Belgian comedy film for which she won Étoiles d'Or for Best Female Newcomer, French war film Days of Glory (2006), Cédric Klapisch's Paris (2008) with an ensemble cast, The Round Up (2010), a French movie depicting the true story of a Jewish boy amidst the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, Mike Mills' comedy drama Beginners (2011) for which was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress category at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, comedy drama Et soudain, tout le monde me manque (2011) for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival , French-American nature documentary Wings of Life (2011) serving as narrator, Night Train to Lisbon (2013), Canadian-Spanish psycho thriller Enemy (2013) an adaptation of José Saramago's 2002 novel The Double, and drama film Aloft (2014). In addition she has acted in a number of French movies receiving numerous accolades including the Étoiles d'or du cinéma français (Gold Star of French Cinema).

In her first theater appearance Laurent teamed up with French theatre director Nicolas Bedos and shared the stage with actor Jérôme Kircher in 2010 for Promenade de santé. Apart from her acting career, she has also directed French movies such X Femmes, a short-film series, and Respire, an adaptation of Anne-Sophie Brasme's novel of the same name that screened in the International Critics' Week section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. She made her singing debut with a studio album En t'attendant in May 2011, the album contains twelve songs, five of which are co-written and co-produced by Irish folk musician Damien Rice. The album peaked at no. 22 and no. 35 at the Belgian Albums Charts and French Albums Charts respectively.

Biography

Laurent was in a long-term relationship with fellow French actor Julien Boisselier which ended in 2009. She describes recording artist Damien Rice and filmographer Quentin Tarantino as two "masters" in terms of their art. With Rice, she recorded her first album, living between Woodstock, New York and his home in Ireland. Spending time in his home in Ireland inspired her to maintain a compost heap and eat organic food.

Her first child by her companion, a son named Léo, was born in September 2013.

Laurent has visited a Climate Defenders Camp in the peatlands of the Indonesian Rainforest with Greenpeace activists. She is one of the Climate Ambassadors for Kofi Annan's Global Humanitarian Forum "Tck Tck Tck" Campaign. Laurent has also joined the campaign against overfishing on the invitation of the Blue Marine Foundation, and was cast for the voice-over of documentary The End of the Line. She was one of the leading celebrities of the campaign Fish Fight France, which aimed (and succeeded) at citizens asking for a new European law lowering the level of fish discards in European seas.

Laurent explained in 2009 that she doesn’t have ambitions to be a crossover actress. She loves France, her street, her café, and not having to use a car. Rather than go on to work on a big budget American movie after Inglourious Basterds, her next role was in a small theater piece in France.

Laurent has written and directed movies and in an interview with Indiewire admitted she loves writing: “[Writing is] especially super exciting because you have everything to do and most of your ideas come from that first part… you just imagine things, and you imagine actors.” She described the shooting process as “the fun part” because of “working with people I love—it’s always a great human moment because we’re sharing things and it’s good to see people who are here for you and your story, to tell your story. It’s really beautiful, it’s why I love making movies.” She also mentioned that as a writer-director she enjoys that “you don’t wait for the desire of someone else”.