Omar Sy Biography

Omar Sy (born 20 January 1978) is a French actor and comedian. He is best known in France for his duo with Fred Testot, Omar et Fred, and for his role in The Intouchables, and internationally for his roles in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Jurassic World. He received a Csar Award for Best Actor on 24 February 2012 for his role in The Intouchables and in doing so also became the first actor of African descent to win the French award.

Early life and education

The fourth of eight children, Omar Sy was born in Trappes in the Yvelines department, France. His parents are both immigrants from West Africa. His Mauritanian mother worked as a house-cleaner, and his Senegalese father worked in a factory. He has Fulani origins. He was raised in low-income suburban housing projects.

Career

He started his career after high school in 1996 with Radio Nova as a comedian where he met comedy partner Fred Testot. Afterwards, he appeared in the TV show Le Cinma de Jamel on [[Canal+]], with Jamel Debbouze. He then created a TV show called Le Visiophon. This was followed by various TV and stage shows such as Je ne fais pas mon ge, Service aprs-vente des missions, Omar et Fred: le spectacle. In 2005, Service aprs-vente des missions was adapted into short sketches of 2 or 3 minutes on Canal+. (In 2012, Canal+ announced that the programme had been dropped from its schedule.)

He appeared in the television game show Fort Boyard in 2006.

Omar then went to Los Angeles, where he lent his voice to Zip in the French version of the Tomb Raider Legend video game. He previously had also voiced a sheep in Disney's Brother Bear.

In 2008, he appeared in "Bienvenue chez les Bylkas", a video clip by Sinik. In 2009, he voiced some of the characters of Logorama with his partner Fred Testot.

In 2011, he starred in The Intouchables, playing a streetwise young man who becomes the personal care assistant to a wealthy quadriplegic (played by Franois Cluzet). This film enjoyed tremendous popular success, with more than 19 million tickets sold. It topped the French box office in 2011 and became the best selling French film of all time at the French box office. As a result, Omar Sy was voted third favourite French personality behind Yannick Noah and Zindine Zidane. The role earned him the 2012 Globe de Cristal for Best Actor. He also received a nomination for a Satellite Award for Best Actor. He and co-star Franois Cluzet jointly were bestowed the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Additionally, he won the Csar Award for Best Actor in 2012 for the same film.

On 30 December 2012, Omar Sy was voted favourite personality in France, based on a poll run by Le Journal du Dimanche, ahead of fellow actor Gad Elmaleh.

In 2014, Sy appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which he played the role Bishop. He also stars in Samba, directed by Olivier Nakache and ric Toledano. He co-starred in the fourth film of the Jurassic Park saga, Jurassic World, which was released in June 2015.

Personal life

On 5 July 2007, he married Hlne, the mother of his five children, in Tremblay-sur-Mauldre. They were together ten years before marrying. The family resides in a house in Yvelines Montfort-l'Amaury.

Sy is a Muslim.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
2000	Granturismo	Voice	Denis Thybaud	Short
2001	La Tour Montparnasse Infernale	Taxi	Charles Nemes
	La concierge est dans l'ascenseur		Olivier Coussemacq	Short
	Omar et Fred	Various		TV Series
2002	Le Boulet	A Malian	Alain Berberian & Frdric Forestier
	Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra	Painter	Alain Chabat
	Samourais	Tyson	Giordano Gederlini
	The Race	UNO Seargent	Djamel Bensalah
	Ces jours heureux	Brice	Olivier Nakache & ric Toledano	Short
	Si j'tais lui	Gabriel	Philippe Triboit	TV Movie
2003	La Beuze	Michel Dembl	Franois Desagnat & Thomas Sorriaux
2004	Le Carton	Lorenzo	Charles Nemes
	Coming-out	Max	Olivier Ayache-Vidal	Short
2005-12	SAV des missions	Various	Several	TV Series
2006	Those Happy Days	Joseph	Olivier Nakache & ric Toledano	NRJ Cin Awards - Most Promising Actor Nominated - NRJ Cin Award for The Best Kiss (with Marilou Berry) Nominated - Raimu de la Comdie for The Best Supporting Actor
	Les multiples	Jimmy	Several	TV Series
2007	Garage Babes	Hamidou	Julien Pelgrand
	Moot-Moot	Isidore	Several	TV Series
2008	Seuls two	Sammy Bouglioni	ric Judor & Ramzy Bedia
2009	Micmacs	Remington	Jean-Pierre Jeunet
	Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard	Snow	Luc Besson
	Lascars	Narb	Emmanuel Klotz & Albert Pereira-Lazaro
	Tellement proches	Bruno	Olivier Nakache & ric Toledano
	King Guillaume	Jean Peter	Pierre-Franois Martin-Laval
	Safari	Youssouf Hammal	Olivier Baroux
	Envoys trs spciaux	Jimmy	Frdric Auburtin
	La Loi de Murphy	Father Joachim Ortega	Christophe Campos
2010	Allez raconte!	Voice	Jean-Christophe Roger
	Le pas Petit Poucet	Grand Poucet	Christophe Campos	TV Movie
	Histoires de vies	Mo		TV Series (1 Episode)
2011	Les Tuche	The Monk	Olivier Baroux
	The Intouchables	Bakary "Driss" Bassari	Olivier Nakache & ric Toledano	Csar Award for Best Actor Tokyo International Film Festival - Best Actor (Share with Franois Cluzet) Lumires Award for Best Actor Globes de Cristal Award for Best Actor Etoiles d'Or Award for Revelation of the Year Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Virtuoso Award Nominated - Black Reel Award for Best Actor Nominated - Black Reel Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Nominated - European Film Award for Best Actor Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture
	Fish'n Chips	Fish		TV Series (52 episodes)
2012	De l'autre ct du priph	Ousmane Diakhat	David Charhon
	Les Seigneurs	Wk N'Dogo	Olivier Dahan
	Mais qui a retu Pamela Rose ?	Mosby	Olivier Baroux & Kad Merad
	Crazy Pink Limo	The Philosopher	Josphine de Meaux	Short
	Bref	Himself		TV Series (1 Episode)
2013	Mood Indigo	Nicolas	Michel Gondry
	Good People	Khan	Henrik Ruben Genz
2014	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Bishop	Bryan Singer
	Samba	Samba Ciss	Olivier Nakache & ric Toledano
	Mune: Guardian of the Moon	Sohone	Benot Philippon & Alexandre Heboyan
2015	Jurassic World	Barry	Colin Trevorrow	Also in Lego Jurassic World
	Burnt	Michel	John Wells
2016	Chocolat	Clown Chocolat	Roschdy Zem
	The Angry Birds Movie	Red	Fergal Reilly Clay Kaytis	French dub
	Norm of the North	Norm	Trevor Wall	French dub
	Inferno	Christoph Bruder	Ron Howard
	Demain tout commence	Samuel	Hugo Glin