Virginie Efira

Virginie Efira at the Deauville American Film Festival in 2010

She was first hired by Club RTL (A Belgian TV channel in the RTL Group) to present a children's show called Mégamix. She went on to present other programmes in Belgium, including A la recherche de la nouvelle Star. In September 2002 she was offered the job of the presenter of Belgian's version of Star Academy.

After casting to be a weather girl on France's M6 channel, she was soon pushed into the limelight as one of M6's main public faces, presenting shows such as Le Grand Zap, La saga des ..., Follement Gay, Absolument 80/90, Le Grand Piège and Drôles d'équipes. She was the host of Classé Confidentiel for one year, before replacing Benjamin Castaldi as the host of the popular musical reality show Nouvelle Star for the end of the show's fourth series. She also presents various shows on RTL-TVi (a spin-off channel in the RTL Group).

Efira's film career took off in 2004, appearing as Dr. Liz Wilson in the French-language version of Garfield: The Movie, as well as playing Piper in the French version of the 2005 film Robots. She also voiced the characters of Kitty Softpaws in Puss in Boots and Mavis in Hotel Transylvania (2012), Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018). Efira also guest-starred in two episodes of the highly successful French show Kaamelott.

In 2010, she participated in Rendez-vous en terre inconnue. Efira next had a supporting role as a social worker in the comedy-drama My Worst Nightmare (2011) directed by Anne Fontaine, opposite Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Poelvoorde and André Dussollier. The following year, she won the Audience Award at the 2nd Magritte Awards.[3]

In 2013, Efira starred alongside Pierre Niney in the romantic comedy It Boy, about a 38-year-old woman and her relationship with a teenage boy. The film was highly successful in France and garnered positives reviews. Regarding her performance, Variety wrote she "has a particular talent for transmitting thoughts and eliciting laughs using facial expressions alone, a gift that gets another glorious workout here".[4]

Virginie Efira in 2017

In 2016, Efira starred in the romantic comedy-drama In Bed with Victoria, about a single mom and criminal lawyer who goes through a midlife crisis. The film was screened in the International Critics' Week section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it obtained very favourable reviews. Efira's performance was described by The Hollywood Reporter as both "vibrant" and "well-tuned", and earned her a Magritte Award for Best Actress as well as a César Award for Best Actress nomination.[5] That same year, Efira had a small but crucial role opposite Isabelle Huppert in Paul Verhoeven's psychological thriller Elle.[6] Her final release of 2016 was Up for Love, a romantic comedy with Jean Dujardin, in which she played a lawyer who falls in love with a man of diminutive stature.[7] The following year, she made a guest appearance as herself in one episode of the successful French series Call My Agent!.

In 2018, Efira took on the leading role in the drama An Impossible Love, Catherine Corsini's adaptation of the best-selling novel by Christine Angot – the story of the incestuous father of Angot and her mother who has not seen anything. The film and her performance received critical acclaim. Screen International felt that the actress "previously known for lighter material (In Bed With Victoria), shows herself more than capable of a heavyweight dramatic role, subtly maturing from romantic 20s to careworn middle age" and also added that "she offers a powerful, assured performance in a film that's likely to score highly both as a superior and very accessible melodrama and as an intelligent conversation piece".[8] She received Cesar Award, Globe de Cristal Award and Lumières Award nominations in the Best Actress category for her performance in the film.

That same year, Efira was part of the ensemble cast in the comedy Sink or Swim directed by Gilles Lellouche, which was screened out of competition at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and earned her a Cesar Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. Also in 2018, her performance in the drama Keep Going was praised, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that she "is excellent here as a woman caught between her fiercely independent nature and her desire to be a good mother, trying to steer her son on the right path".[9] The following year, Efira starred in the comedy-drama Sibyl, her second collaboration with director Justine Triet, playing a psychotherapist who wants to return to writing. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it received mostly positive reviews with particular praise for Efira's performance. Variety stated that "Sibyl seals the arrival of Efira, once pegged as a likable but lightweight comedienne, as a first-class leading lady of consistently expanding range and elan — with the emotional honesty and deadpan pluck to pull off the more outrageous character turns in Triet and Arthur Harari’s limber original script."[10] while The Hollywood Reporter felt that "the actress plays several roles at the same time — the astute psychologist, the struggling author, the affectionate yet neglectful mom, the fervid lover in two very candid sex scenes — and she does each one extremely well, turning Sibyl’s altered states into a whole that reflects her drive to be many things at once."[11]

In 2020, Efira reunited with Paul Verhoeven to appear as Benedetta Carlini, a 17th-century nun who suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions, in the historical drama Benedetta.[12]