Omar Sy

Omar Sy
Sy at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival
Born	(1978-01-20) 20 January 1978 (age 43) Trappes, Yvelines, France
Years active	2001–present
Spouse(s)	Hélène ​ (m. 2007)​ [1]
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[]

Omar Sy winning the César Award for Best Actor in 2012 at the 37th César Awards for The Intouchables

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 Muslim.^[3][14]

Sy is a supporter of Olympique de Marseille.^[15]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Television[]

Video games[]

Awards and nominations[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Omar Sy.

• Omarius et Fred
• Omar Sy at IMDb