Lyna Khoudri

Lyna Khoudri is an Algerian and French actress who has earned international recognition for her performances in cinema and television. Born in Algiers, Algeria, on October 3, 1992, she is best known for her critically acclaimed roles in French and international productions. Over the course of her career, she has received several major industry honors, including a César Award and an award at the Venice International Film Festival.

Khoudri was born to a journalist father and a violinist mother. When she was two years old, her family left Algeria and relocated to Aubervilliers, France, as exiles following death threats linked to the dangers of her father's profession during the Algerian Civil War. She grew up speaking French, Arabic, and English, and she acquired French citizenship at the age of eighteen. She later pursued formal acting instruction, receiving her professional training at the Théâtre national de la Colline in Paris.

Khoudri began her screen acting career in 2014 with her first role in the French television series Josephine, Guardian Angel. Her breakthrough came in 2017 when she starred in Sofia Djama's film The Blessed, a role that earned her the Orizzonti Award for Best Actress at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. In 2019, she expanded her television work by appearing as Louna in six episodes of the Canal+ miniseries Savages, directed by Rebecca Zlotowski.

Also in 2019, Khoudri gained widespread critical acclaim playing Nedjma in Mounia Meddour's film Papicha, which follows a young Algerian woman utilizing fashion as cultural resistance during the Algerian Civil War. For this performance, she received the César Award for Most Promising Actress in February 2020, having previously attended the César Awards Revelations dinner in January 2020 with actress Marion Cotillard serving as her Godmother.

Her international prominence expanded in 2021 when she played Juliette, a student activist, in Wes Anderson's feature film The French Dispatch. She appeared opposite Timothée Chalamet in a storyline focused on a student riot, and she attended the film's premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. In 2022, she portrayed Samia in Cédric Jimenez's film November, earning a nomination for the César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Khoudri continued taking on prominent projects in 2023, starring in Pascal Rambert's monologue Perdre son sac at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. That same year, she played Constance Bonacieux alongside François Civil in Martin Bourboulon's two-part adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers, titled The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers: Milady. She and Civil also co-starred in Romain Cogitore's romantic thriller A Place to Fight For, the first French original film released by Disney+, in which she portrayed an environmental activist.

In 2024, Khoudri appeared in Bruno Dumont's sci-fi production The Empire, Loris Lai's drama How Kids Roll, and the short film An Urban Allegory. Her announced future projects include the Apple TV+ series Carême, the animated feature In Waves, Martin Bourboulon's drama In The Hell of Kabul: 13 Days, 13 Nights, Mélissa Drigeard's Le Gang des Amazones, and Tarik Saleh's political thriller Eagles of the Republic.

Beyond acting, Khoudri has maintained a notable connection to fashion. After initial collaborations starting in 2020, she became an official brand ambassador for the French fashion house Chanel in 2022, making her catwalk debut at the Chanel 2022/23 Cruise show in Monte Carlo. In her personal life, she began dating French football player Karim Benzema in 2025, and the couple married in Corsica in July of that year.