François Damiens

ActivitiesActor, Director, Screenwriter, Voice

SecteurCinema

Biography

François Damiens grew up with an incredible passion for humour and entertaining, and so it is not surprising that after his marketing studies that he went to work for Belgian TV on a candid camera programme. Creator of the vulgar, complaining, anything-but-nice character of François l'Embrouille, he became very popular very quickly and could no longer walk the streets in Belgium without being recognised. So back to France he went where he was able to trap even a celebrity or two, notably Bruno Solo, Franck Dubosc, and Jamel Debbouze. In the end, he had done more than 400 episodes between 1999 and 2005.
And that is how he managed to get his first role on the silver screen. After the candid episode where he caught the comic duo Eric and Ramzy, the two presented him to friend Michel Hazanavicius who was immediately seduced by François Damiens's comic wit. He obtained the role of a Belgian shopkeeper in the comedy "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" in 2006. That same year, he landed one of the lead roles in the Belgian film Dikkenek by Olivier Van Hoofstadt, a completely crazy comedy. A number of second roles then came his way: "Me Two" (2007), Taxi 4 (2007), JCVD (2008) among others. In 2009, he accepted a dramatic role in the "The Wolberg Family" by Axelle Ropert (only having given a dramatic performance once before in 2006 in "Behind the Walls" by Christian Faure).