Daughter of philosopher Etienne Balibar and physicist Françoise Balibar, Jeanne Balibar was introduced to the arts by her parents quite young going to the cinema or the opera, and then she discovered literature and dance. After preparatory classes in the humanities, she pursued a top notch higher education at Ecole Normale Supérieure before orienting towards the actor's craft and studies at Cours Florent and then the Conservatory. Drawing attention to herself at Avignon in the play "Don Juan" directed by Lassalle, she then joined the troupe of actors at the Comedie Française where she stayed until1997.
Her first screen appearance (unaccredited) was in "The Sentinel" in 1992. Her first consequential role was that of an unpredictable lover in Arnaud Desplechin's next film entitled "Ma vie sexuelle" in 1996. Jeanne Balibar achieved acclaim in 1997 for her role as a doctor torn between two patients, one a hypochondriac and the other HIV positive in "I Can't Stand Love" by Laurence Ferreira Barbosa. Muse of auteur cinema, she gravitated from Assayas's "Late August, Early September" in 1998 (and again for "Clean" in 2003) to Jean-Claude Biette's "Trois Ponts sur la rivière" in 1999, opposite Mathieu Amalric in both, actor/director with whom she shares her real life and who directed her in "Mange ta soupe" and "Wimbledon Stage".
The mystery this demanding actress exudes is so original, yet so light and full of humor at the same time, as seen in her film appearances in "Only God Sees Me" (1998) by Podalydes and "Tomorrow's Another Day" by Jeanne Labrune (2000). Seen in films by Jacquot and Christophe Honore, Guillaume Nicloux, and even Winterbottom, Jeanne Balibar has gracefully developed as an actress: cerebral and fun in Ruiz's "Comedy of Innocence" (2000) and especially in New Wave master Jacques Rivette's "Who Knows?" (2001) and "The Duchess of Langeais" (2007), a Balzac adaptation, extravagant lover of "Sagan" in the biopic by Diane Kurys, while in "Le Bal des actrices" (2009) she plays her intellectual side.