Simon Abkarian

Born in the Paris region to Armen­ian par­ents, Simon Abkar­i­an grew up in Lebanon and lat­er in Los Ange­les, where he joined Gérald Papazian’s the­ater com­pa­ny. Upon return­ing to France, he became a mem­ber of Ari­ane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil. In film, he has worked with such direc­tors as Cédric Klapisch, Jonathan Demme, Sal­ly Pot­ter, Ronit & Shlo­mi Elk­a­betz, Robert Guédigu­ian, Fab­rice Du Welz, Fatih Akin, Alex­is Micha­lik and David Oel­hof­fen. He also embod­ied one of James Bond’s vil­lains in Mar­tin Campbell’s Casi­no Royale. On tele­vi­sion, he has dis­tin­guished him­self in series includ­ing I Saw Ben Bar­ka Get Killed, Pigalle, La Nuit, Tony’s Revenge and Kab­ul Kitchen. Along­side his screen career, he was hon­ored with a Best Actor Molière Award in 2011 for his stage work in Beast on the Moon, direct­ed by Iri­na Brook. He has also writ­ten and direct­ed sev­er­al plays, includ­ing The Last Day of Fast­ing, The Flight of the Storks, and Elec­tra in the Under­world, which earned him three Molière Awards. This year, he plays Gen­er­al de Gaulle in Antonin Baudry’s two-part work, De Gaulle.