Jean Dujardin

Jean Edmond Dujardin is a French actor and comedian born on June 19, 1972, in Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine, in the western suburbs of Paris. Raised in neighboring Plaisir, Yvelines, he initially worked as a locksmith for his father Jacques Dujardin's construction company after finishing high school. He began considering a career in acting while completing his mandatory military service.

Dujardin launched his performance career in Paris, writing and staging his own one-person show across local bars and cabarets. He first earned public attention in 1996 through the French talent competition show Graines de star as part of Nous Ç Nous, a comedic troupe formed by members of the Carré blanc theater. He subsequently made guest appearances on comedic television programs and in films.

From 1999 to 2003, Dujardin achieved widespread national prominence by starring in the French adaptation of the Canadian comedy series Un gars, une fille. Performing alongside Alexandra Lamy, he portrayed a couple navigating their relationship in brief episodes lasting under ten minutes. Following this television success, he transitioned into feature films, starring as the lead character in the hit 2005 comedy Brice de Nice, a role for which he also contributed to the soundtrack.

His film career expanded significantly with his portrayal of secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath in Michel Hazanavicius's OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies in 2006. The performance garnered an Etoile D'Or Award and a César Award nomination, leading to sequels in 2009 and 2021. Dujardin subsequently starred in Jan Kounen's 2007 satire 99 Francs, adapted from Frédéric Beigbeder's bestseller, and made his dramatic film debut in Franck Mancuso's Contre-enquête that same year. He later appeared alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo in A Man and His Dog in 2009 and played a personified illness in Bertrand Blier's black comedy The Clink of Ice in 2010.

In 2011, Dujardin achieved global acclaim for his performance as silent movie star George Valentin in The Artist, directed by Hazanavicius and co-starring Bérénice Bejo. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival where he won Best Actor, the role earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor—making him the first French actor to win the award—along with a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Though signed by the WME agency following his Oscar victory, he maintained his primary professional focus in France.

Dujardin continued taking on diverse projects, including the 2012 film Les Infidèles with Gilles Lellouche and the 2013 thriller Möbius. He also took roles in major English-language features, such as Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013 and George Clooney's The Monuments Men in 2014, while starring in French productions including Le Petit Joueur and La French, where he portrayed a police magistrate fighting organized crime.

In his personal life, Dujardin has been married three times and has four children. He has two sons born in 2000 and 2001 from his first marriage to Gaëlle Demars. After dating his Un gars, une fille co-star Alexandra Lamy starting in 2003, they married in 2009 and separated in 2013. He later married French ice dancer Nathalie Péchalat in 2018, with whom he has two daughters born in 2015 and 2021.