Jean-Pascal Zadi

Jean-Pas­cal Zadi began his career as a rap­per in the Caen-based group La Cel­lule, before shift­ing to direct music videos, a doc­u­men­tary on inde­pen­dent rap (Des Halls aux bacs, 2005) and a mid-length nar­ra­tive film (Cramé, 2008). In 2010, he found­ed Douze Doigts Pro­duc­tions and pro­duced his first nar­ra­tive fea­tures: African Gang­ster and No Pain No Shame. In the 2010s, he joined the show Le Before du Grand Jour­nal and took on his first film roles, notably in Fab­rice Eboué’s Coex­is­ter (2017). In 2020, he wrote, co-direct­ed with John Wax and played the lead role in the satir­i­cal com­e­dy Sim­ply Black, which won him the César Award for Most Promis­ing Actor and a César nom­i­na­tion for Best First Film. Jean-Pas­cal Zadi shone again as an actor in Michel Haz­anavi­cius’ Final Cut, Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma’s Year of the Shark, Quentin Dupieux’s Smok­ing Caus­es Cough­ing, Chad Chenouga and Chris­tine Paillard’s A Smile Doesn’t Lie, Laeti­tia Dosch’s Dog on Tri­al and Gilles Lellouche’s Beat­ing Hearts. In par­al­lel, he has con­tin­ued to work as a writer-direc­tor, hav­ing cre­at­ed the series Craig­nos and Car­ré­ment criag­nos for France.tv Slash and Rep­re­sent for Net­flix. This year, he returns both in front of and behind the cam­era with the Afro-futur­ist com­e­dy Black to the Future. He also appears in Yohann Gloaguen’s Pros­per, once again lends his voice to Mr. Shark in Pierre Per­ifel and Juan Pablo Sans’ The Bad Guys 2, and con­tributed to the dub­bing for the Net­flix series Aster­ix and Obelix: The Big Fight.