Louis Garrel

Garrel was born in Paris, France, the son of director Philippe Garrel and actress Brigitte Sy, and the brother of actress Esther Garrel. His grandfather, Maurice Garrel, and his godfather, Jean-Pierre Léaud, are also notable French actors.[3][4] His mother is of Sephardic Jewish descent.[5][6] He is a graduate of the Conservatoire de Paris.[3]

Garrel was six when he first appeared onscreen, in the film Les Baisers de secours.[1] Twelve years later, he appeared in his second film, Ceci est mon corps.

In 2002, Garrel gained international recognition playing Eva Green's twin brother in The Dreamers.[2] Director Bernardo Bertolucci found him on the first session of casting in Paris.[7] Garrel has since starred in various French films, including Les Amants réguliers (2005), directed by his father Philippe Garrel. He was awarded the César Award for Most Promising Actor for his work in the film.[1][3]

Garrel has collaborated five times with filmmaker Christophe Honoré in the feature films Ma Mère (2004), an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Georges Bataille starring Isabelle Huppert; Dans Paris (2006), alongside Romain Duris; Love Songs (2007), a film for which he also revealed his talent as a singer;[8] The Beautiful Person (2008); Making Plans for Lena (2009) and finally, Two Friends (2015), where Honoré served as co-writer. He also appeared in Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's Actrices (2007), Rachid Hami's Choisir d'aimer (2008) and Philipe Garrel's Frontier of the Dawn (2008).

In 2008, he launched into directing with his first short film, Mes copains. Two years later, he directed a second short film, Petit Tailleur.[9]

He appeared in Heartbeats, the second film by director Xavier Dolan, released in 2010. In 2011, Garrel directed a third short film, La Règle de trois, with Vincent Macaigne and Golshifteh Farahani, which he presented at the Locarno Festival.[10]

In 2014, he played Jacques de Bascher, the lover of Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent in Bertrand Bonello's film, Saint Laurent.

His directional debut film, Two Friends, starring Golshifteh Farahani, Vincent Macaigne and himself,[11][12] was released in cinemas in 2015.

In 2019, Garrel starred in An Officer and a Spy directed by Roman Polanski, which revolved around the Dreyfus affair.[13] The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August 2019, and was released in November 2019.[14][15] That same year, he starred in Little Women based upon novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott opposite Saoirse Ronan.[16]

Garrel will next star in Rifkin's Festival directed by Woody Allen,[17] DNA directed by Maïwenn,[18] and The Story of My Wife opposite Léa Seydoux, directed by Ildikó Enyedi.[19]

Aside from his native French, Garrel speaks English and Italian.[3]

Garrel was in a relationship with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi from 2007 to 2012. She is the elder sister of Carla Bruni, the wife of the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2009 Bruni Tedeschi and Garrel adopted a baby from Senegal, whom they named Céline.[20]

In June 2017, Garrel married model and actress Laetitia Casta and became stepfather to her three children. The couple have been together since 2015.[21]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louis Garrel.

• Official site
• Louis Garrel at IMDb