François Berléand

François Berléand — Biography

Born in Paris on 22 April 1952, François Berléand abandoned a course of study in commerce for the stage, trained under Tania Balachova, and spent years performing in dozens of productions under one director before catching notice with supporting roles in Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants and Milou en mai, and in Catherine Breillat's Romance.

Fame arrived only at forty-seven, through the 1999 comedy My Little Business, which earned him a César for best supporting actor the following year; he credits his former partner, actress Nicole Garcia, with helping him land his first leading part soon after, in Guillaume Canet's Mon idole. Since then he has taken roles in around forty features, portraying office manager Gilles Triquet, the local counterpart to David Brent, in the Canal+ comedy Le Bureau, and Commissioner Tarconi across the Transporter films from 2002 onward. In 2006 he published a memoir recounting how his father convinced him as a boy that he was the son of the Invisible Man. He has two adult children, Martin and Fanny, a grandson named Elios, and holds both the Knight and Officer grades of the Legion of Honour.