Lionel Abelanski

Lionel Abelanski — Biography

Born on 22 October 1964 in Paris's 20th arrondissement, Lionel Abelanski trained at the Cours Florent drama school and has spent more than three decades working as a character actor in French cinema.

Active from the mid-1990s in a mix of comedies and dramas, he reached a wide audience playing Shlomo in Radu Mihaileanu's Holocaust-era film Train of Life, and also took the parts of Simonnet in Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre and Jean-Paul Carrère, a figure from the orchestra's circle, in The Concert. His filmography later grew to include Rue Mandar, Nicholas on Holiday and The First, the Last, and he remained on screen with a role in the 2023 release Bernadette.

Married to Nathalie Levy-Lang, Abelanski is regarded as a versatile performer who moves comfortably between comedy and drama.