Omar Sy
Omar Sy | |
---|---|
![]() Sy at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival | |
Born | |
Years active | 2001–present |
Spouse(s) | Hélène (m. 2007) |
Children | 5 |
Omar Sy (French pronunciation: [ɔmaʁ si]; born 20 January 1978) is a French actor, best known in his homeland for his sketches with Fred Testot on the Service après-vente des émissions television show on Canal+ (2005–2012). He became famous abroad with the 2011 comedy-drama film The Intouchables, which earned him the César Award for Best Actor as the first Black recipient of the award. He later appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Jurassic World (2015), Two Is a Family (2016), Chocolat (2016), Inferno (2016), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) and the Netflix-produced show Lupin (2021).[2]
Early life[]
The fourth of eight children,[3] Sy was born in Trappes in the Yvelines department, Île-de-France region, France.[2] Both of his parents are immigrants from West Africa.[3] His Mauritanian mother, Diaratou worked as a house cleaner, and his Senegalese father, Demba Sy worked in an auto parts factory,[3] after moving from Bakel to France in 1962. Omar is of Fulani origin.[4] He was raised in the low-income suburban housing projects[3][4] in Trappes, a western suburb of Paris. The family visited Senegal every other summer. They spoke Pulaar at home.[5]
Career[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Omar_Sy_C%C3%A9sar_2012.jpg/220px-Omar_Sy_C%C3%A9sar_2012.jpg)
He started his career after high school in 1996[4] with Radio Nova as a comedian where he met his comedy partner Fred Testot.[2] Afterwards, he appeared in the TV show Le Cinéma de Jamel on Canal+, with Jamel Debbouze. He then created a TV show called Le Visiophon.[2] Following these roles, he starred in various TV and stage shows such as Je ne fais pas mon âge, Service après-vente des émissions, Omar et Fred: le spectacle. Omar cohosted Service après-vente des émissions, a French short comedy television series, with Fred Testot from 2005 to 2012 on Canal+ until it was cancelled.
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.[2]
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 François 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 Zinedine 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.[6] He and co-star François Cluzet were jointly bestowed the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Additionally, he won the César Award for Best Actor in 2012 for the same film.
On 30 December 2012, Omar Sy was voted the 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, and played the character Bishop. He also starred in Samba, directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano. He co-starred in the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World,[2] which was released in June 2015.[7] In 2015, along side Bradley Cooper, he played a compromised chef in Burnt. In 2017, he voiced the character Hot Rod in the film Transformers: The Last Knight, the fifth installment in the Transformers series. In 2021, he starred in Netflix's hit series Lupin, a modern day retelling of Arsène Lupin novels.[8][9] Lupin has become the most-watched non-English series on Netflix. According to Netflix, 76 million member accounts worldwide watched at least a couple minutes of the series over its first four weeks of release. More recently, Sy had signed a multi-year feature film deal with Netflix.[10] In 2021, he was included on the Time 100, Time's annual list.[11]
Personal life[]
On 5 July 2007, he married Hélène, the mother of his five children,[4][12] in Tremblay-sur-Mauldre. They had been together for ten years before they got married.[12] The family resided in Montfort-l'Amaury a commune of Île-de-France[12] before moving to Los Angeles in 2012. Hélène runs CéKeDuBonheur, a nonprofit supporting children’s wards at French hospitals, and Siyah Organics, a Sénégalo-American organic-food-supplements company.[13]
Sy is a supporter of Olympique de Marseille.[15]
Filmography[]
Film[]
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 | ||
2002 | Le Boulet | Malian No. 3 | Alain Berberian & Frédéric Forestier | |
Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra | Painter | Alain Chabat | ||
Samourais | Tyson | Giordano Gederlini | ||
The Race | UNO Sergeant | Djamel Bensalah | ||
Ces jours heureux | Brice | Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano | Short | |
2003 | La Beuze | Michel Dembélé | François Desagnat & Thomas Sorriaux | |
Pardon aux familles... Tout ça! | Voice | Patrick Menais | Video | |
2004 | Le Carton | Lorenzo | Charles Nemes | |
Coming-out | Max | Olivier Ayache-Vidal | Short | |
Un Jean-Pierre ça peut tout faire | Patrick Menais | Video | ||
2006 | Nos jours heureux | Joseph | Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano | |
2007 | Garage Babes | Hamidou | Julien Pelgrand | Video |
2008 | Seuls two | Sammy Bouglioni | Éric Judor & Ramzy Bedia | |
La France d'après | Voice | Patrick Menais | Video | |
2009 | Micmacs | Remington | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | |
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard | Snow (voice) | Luc Besson | French dub | |
Lascars | Narbé (voice) | Emmanuel Klotz & Albert Pereira-Lazaro | ||
Tellement proches | Bruno | Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano | ||
King Guillaume | Jean-Peter | Pierre-François Martin-Laval | ||
Safari | Youssouf Hammal | Olivier Baroux | ||
Envoyés très spéciaux | Jimmy | Frédéric Auburtin | ||
La Loi de Murphy | Father Joachim Ortega | Christophe Campos | ||
Logorama | Michelin Man, Yellow M&Ms, Mr. Clean | François Alaux | French version | |
2010 | Allez raconte! | Momo (voice) | Jean-Christophe Roger | |
Florence Foresti: Mother Fucker | Chauffeur de taxi | Nicolas Benamou | Video | |
2011 | Les Tuche | Curé de Bouzolles | Olivier Baroux | |
Intouchables | Bakary "Driss" Bassari | Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano | ||
Captain America: The First Avenger | Soldier in Bucky's Team | Joe Johnston | ||
2012 | De l'autre côté du périph | Ousmane Diakhaté | David Charhon | |
Les seigneurs | Wéké N'Dogo | Olivier Dahan | ||
Mais qui a re-tué Pamela Rose? | Mosby | Olivier Baroux & Kad Merad | ||
Crazy Pink Limo | The Philosopher | Joséphine de Meaux | Short | |
2013 | Mood Indigo | Nicolas | Michel Gondry | |
Aux Armes: AIDES | Narrator (voice) | Short | ||
2014 | Good People | Khan | Henrik Ruben Genz | |
X-Men: Days of Future Past | Bishop | Bryan Singer | ||
Samba | Samba Cissé | Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano | ||
Mune: Guardian of the Moon | Sohone (voice) | Benoît Philippon & Alexandre Heboyan | ||
2015 | Jurassic World | Barry | Colin Trevorrow | |
Burnt | Michel | John Wells | ||
2016 | Chocolat | Clown Chocolat | Roschdy Zem | |
The Angry Birds Movie | Red (voice) | Fergal Reilly & Clay Kaytis | French dub | |
Norm of the North | Norm (voice)[16] | Trevor Wall | French dub | |
Inferno | Christoph Bouchard | Ron Howard | ||
Demain tout commence | Samuel | Hugo Gélin | ||
2017 | Sahara | Ajar (voice) | Pierre Coré | |
Knock | Knock | Lorraine Lévy | ||
Transformers: The Last Knight | Hot Rod (voice) | Michael Bay | ||
2018 | Le flic de Belleville | Sebastian Bouchard | Rachid Bouchareb | |
Yao | Seydou Tall | Philippe Godeau | ||
2019 | Le Chant du loup | D'Orsi | Antonin Baudry | |
Arctic Dogs | Leopold (voice) | Aaron Woodley | ||
2020 | The Call of the Wild | Perrault | Chris Sanders | |
Le prince oublié | Le père / Le prince | Michel Hazanavicius | ||
Police | Aristide | |||
Refugee | Marwan | Brandt Andersen | Short | |
Tout simplement noir | Omarius | John Wax & Jean-Pascal Zadi | Post-production | |
Soul | Joe Gardner | Pete Docter and Kemp Powers | French dub | |
2022 | Tower of Strength | Louis Leterrier | Filming | |
2022 | Jurassic World: Dominion | Barry | Colin Trevorrow | |
TBA | Le chat (voice) | Joann Sfar | Pre-production |
Television[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | La cape et l'épée | Le ménestrel | TV Series (1 episode) |
2000 | Omarius et Fred | Various Characters | TV Series |
2002 | Si j'étais lui | Gabriel | TV Movie |
2006 | Les multiples | Jimmy (voice) | TV Series |
2007 | Moot-Moot | Isidore | TV Series |
2010 | Le pas Petit Poucet | Grand Poucet | TV Movie |
Histoires de vies | Mo | TV Series (1 episode) | |
2010–2012 | SAV des émissions | Various | TV series (4 episodes) |
2011 | Fish'n Chips | Fish | TV Series (52 episodes) |
2012 | Bref | Himself | TV Series (1 episode) |
Zak | Himself | TV series | |
2019 | ForesTiVi | TV Series short (1 episode) | |
2021 | Lupin | Assane Diop | Netflix series[17] |
Video games[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Lego Jurassic World | Barry |
Awards and nominations[]
Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | Raimu de la Comédie | Actor in a Supporting Role | Nos jours heureux | Nominated | |
2007 | NRJ Ciné Awards | Best Young Talent in a Debut Film | Won | ||
2011 | Tokyo International Film Festival | Best Actor (shared with François Cluzet) | Intouchables | Won | |
2012 | Lumières Awards | Best Actor | Won | ||
Globe de Cristal Awards | Best Actor | Won | |||
César Awards | Best Actor | Won | |||
Étoiles d'Or | Best Male Newcomer | Won | |||
Prix Patrick Dewaere | N/A | N/A | Nominated | ||
European Film Awards | Best Actor | Intouchables | Nominated | ||
Satellite Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture | Nominated | |||
2013 | Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Virtuoso Award | Won | ||
Black Reel Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | |||
Best Breakthrough Performance | Nominated | ||||
2017 | Lumières Awards | Best Actor | Chocolat | Nominated | |
Globe de Cristal Awards | Best Actor | Won | |||
César Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | |||
2021 | TCA Awards | Individual Achievement in Drama | Lupin | Nominated | |
Montreal International Black Film Festival | Career Achievement Award | N/A | Won | ||
Gotham Awards | Outstanding Performance in a New Series | Lupin | Nominated | ||
Rose d'Or | Performance of the Year | Won | |||
2022 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor in a Drama / Genre Series | Pending | ||
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Pending |
References[]
- ^ Watson, Fay (12 January 2021). "Omar Sy wife: Is Lupin-star Omar Sy married?". Express.co.uk.
- ^ a b c d e f Biography Archived 24 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine on Première.fr
- ^ a b c d e Beardsley, Eleanor (28 June 2012). "In France, A Star Rises From An Oft-Neglected Place". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015.
- ^ a b c d "Omar Sy, den orörbara!" [Omar Sy, the untouchable!]. AzurCultures.com (in Swedish). 10 January 2013. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- ^ Collins, Lauren (21 June 2021). "L'homme du jour: Omar Sy's Breakout Moment". The New Yorker. pp. 42–49. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ Lodge, Guy (3 December 2012). "Satellite Award noms run the gamut from 'Silver Linings Playbook' to 'Skyfall'". Uproxx. Archived from the original on 27 March 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- ^ Fritz, Ben (22 May 2014). "'X-Men: Days of Future Past': A Guide to the Mutants". Speakeasy blog. Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 30 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- ^ Ouellette, Jennifer (3 December 2020). "Lupin trailer offers a fresh retelling of classic French gentleman thief". Ars Technica. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
- ^ Elisabeth Vincentelli (14 January 2021). "In 'Lupin,' Omar Sy Puts a New Twist on a Classic French Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
- ^ Kaslassy, Elsa; Ravindran, Manori (12 October 2021). "'Lupin' Star Omar Sy, Netflix Ink Multi-Year Feature Film Deal (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
- ^ Keslassy, Elsa (26 October 2021). "'Lupin' Star Omar Sy Reteams With Gaumont on War-Action Drama 'Father & Soldier'". Variety. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
- ^ a b c "Omar Sy Et Sa Femme Helene : Un Couple Amoureux En 5 Infos" [Omar Sy and His Wife Helene: A Loving Couple — 5 Facts]. PureTrend.com (in French). 22 June 2014. Archived from the original on 6 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- ^ Marshall, Alexandra (11 June 2021). "How Lupin's Omar Sy Became An International TV Sensation". Vogue. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ "Sy on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "Team Duga: Pourquoi Omar Sy est devenu supporter de l'OM" [Team Duga: Why Omar Sy became a supporter of OM]. RMC Sport (in French). 21 January 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- ^ AlloCine. "Teaser Norm : Omar Sy prête sa voix à un ours polaire qui veut sauver sa banquise". allocine.fr. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
- ^ Han, Karen (29 September 2020). "The trailer for Netflix's Lupin introduces a new gentleman thief - Omar Sy stars in the upcoming live-action series". Polygon. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Omar Sy. |
- 1978 births
- Best Actor César Award winners
- Best Actor Lumières Award winners
- French comedians
- French male comedians
- French male film actors
- French male television actors
- French male voice actors
- French Muslims
- French people of Mauritanian descent
- French people of Senegalese descent
- Living people
- People from Trappes
- 21st-century French male actors
- 20th-century French male actors
- French people of Fulbe descent
- French expatriate male actors in the United States
- Time 100