Mélanie Laurent appeared on the big screen for the first time in 1999 in The Bridge by Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin. In 2002, she played Gaspard Ulliel’s girlfriend in See How they Run by Michel Blanc. After which things accelerated and she played in a series of films: The Beat that my Heart Skipped by Jacques Audiard, Days of Glory by Rachid Bouchareb and especially Je vais bien ne t’en fais pas by Philippe Lioret, for which she received the César for Most Promissing Actress. In 2009, she took an important step by playing under the direction of Quentin Tarentino, Inglorious Basterds, with whom she walked up the steps of the Cannes Film Festival. He is the one who gave her the impetus to work behind the camera and direct her first film, Adoptés which was released in 2011.

Without neglecting film sets (The Roundup by Rose Bosch, Beginners by Mike Mills, Now you See Me by Louis Leterrier, Enemy by Denis Villeneuve), the actress and newly filmmaker wrote her second film, Breathe, which was presented at the Semaine de la Critique and received an ovation from the audience. While she is announced to play in Boomerang by François Favrat and Eternité by Trần Anh Hùng alongside Audrey Tautou and Bérénice Béjo, Mélanie Laurent is at present finishing the script for her third film.