Audrey Justine Tautou ([o.dʁɛ to.tu]; born 9 August 1976) is a French actress and model. Signed by an agent at age 17, she made her acting debut at 18 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Venus Beauty Institute (1999), for which she received critical acclaim and won the César Award for Most Promising Actress. Her subsequent roles in the 1990s and 2000s included Le Libertin and Happenstance (2000).

Tautou achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2001 film Amélie, which met with critical acclaim and was a major box-office success. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards, four César Awards (including Best Film and Best Director), two BAFTA Awards (including Best Original Screenplay), and was nominated for five Academy Awards.

Tautou has since appeared in films in a range of genres, including the thrillers Dirty Pretty Things and The Da Vinci Code, and the romantic Priceless (2006). She has received critical acclaim for her many roles including the drama A Very Long Engagement (2004) and the biographical drama Coco avant Chanel (2009). She has been nominated three times for the César Award and twice for the BAFTA for Best Actress in a leading role. She became one of the few French actors in history to be invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004.

Tautou has modeled for Chanel, Montblanc, L'Oréal and many other companies. She is an active supporter of several charities.

Biography

She has studied at the Institut Catholique de Paris. A church-goer when young, she has stated that she is "not officially" Catholic.

Tautou says she considers France her base, where she plans to focus her career, rather than in the United States. She told Stevie Wong of The Straits Times "I am, at the end of the day, a French actress. I am not saying I will never shoot an English-language movie again, but my home, my community, my career is rooted in France. I would never move to Los Angeles."

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