François Civil (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa sivil]; born 29 January 1990) is a French actor. He has appeared in both French and English-language productions and is known for his roles in films such as Frank (2014), As Above, So Below (2014), Five (2016), Burn Out (2017), Love at Second Sight (2019), The Wolf's Call (2019), Who You Think I Am (2019), Someone, Somewhere (2019), BAC Nord (2021), for voicing Buzz Lightyear in the French version of the animated film Lightyear (2022), and for playing D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023) and The Three Musketeers: Milady (2023). On television, he has starred in the Disney Channel teen sitcom series Trop la Classe! (2006), in the France 2 comedy-drama series Call My Agent! (2015–17), and in the Netflix comedy miniseries Fiasco (2024).
Civil won a Chopard Trophy for Male Revelation at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and has earned two nominations for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor; for BAC Nord in 2022 and for Rise in 2023. He was named Actor of the Year by GQ France's Men of the Year Awards in 2023.
Early life
Civil was born in the 12th arrondissement of Paris on 29 January 1990, to a French mother from Avignon and a Tahitian father. His parents are both university professors of Spanish. His paternal grandmother is Tahitian and his paternal grandfather is Catalan. He has an older sister.
In addition to his native French, Civil also speaks English, Spanish, and a bit of Italian.
Civil has a depigmentation of the skin of his arms and a lock of white hair since he was fifteen. He told French magazine Paris Match in 2019 that no doctor could tell him why, but he believes this happened due to stress.
Civil started acting at the age of fourteen. He signed up for an acting class because he wanted to get closer to a girl who was taking acting lessons. The feeling was not mutual, but he ended up falling in love with theater. After spotting him at a school play, the mother of one of the students who was also a casting director encouraged him to continue on this path and insisted that he should go to auditions. Thanks to her, he passed a test and landed a role in his first film, Le Cactus. Civil was also inspired to become an actor after watching the performance of Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). In 2006, he made a brief stint at the French drama school Cours Florent, which he did not like.
Civil was an hyperactive child and had trouble concentrating at school. Theatre, music and sports such as basketball helped him channel his energy and express himself.
Career
Early work (2005–2015)
In 2005, while studying theater at the studio Le Magasin, Civil made his feature film debut with a small role in the comedy Le Cactus, directed by Michel Munz and Gérard Bitton. His second acting gig was an episode of the TV series Louis la Brocante.
In 2006, he played the high school student Dread in the Disney Channel France teen sitcom series Trop la Classe!, that led him to participate in the 2007 Disney Channel Games representing France.
Civil left Trop la Classe! when director Laurence Ferreira Barbosa offered him the leading role in her independent drama film Dying or Feeling Better (Soit je meurs, soit je vais mieux) released in 2008, in which he played a young schoolboy who falls in love with twin sisters. His performance, at the age of 18, earned him a nomination for the Lumière Award for Most Promising Actor, and a pre-nomination for the César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2009. That same year, he appeared in the web-series Twenty Show released on Myspace, which later became a TV film broadcast by Arte in May 2009.
He then continued his theater studies while filming for cinema and television, in particular with the main role in the short film In Our Blood (Dans nos veines), directed by Guillaume Senez, for which he won the Best Actor award at the Brussels Short Film Festival and the double award for interpretation (Jury Award and Audience Award) at the 15th Jean Carmet Festival in Moulins.
In 2010, he was a part of the young cast of the film Bus Palladium, directed by Christopher Thompson. That same year, he did not go to class for all of his senior year because he knew he wanted to pursue acting. He finally presented himself to the Bac exams and obtained it by chance. He stayed in high school for a total of five years after repeating his sophomore year three times.
In 2011, he starred in the World War II drama 15 Lads (Nos résistances) directed by Romain Cogitore, in which he portrayed a member of the French Resistance and received a second pre-nomination for the César Award for Most Promising Actor. He also reprised his role as Dread in the TV series Trop la Classe Café!, and appeared in the erotic drama film Elles directed by Małgorzata Szumowska, in which he played the teenage son of the protagonist portrayed by Juliette Binoche.
In 2013, he won the Premier Rendez-vous prize at the Cabourg Film Festival for his performance in the comedy film Macadam Baby, written and directed by Patrick Bossard. Between 2013 and 2015, he starred on Canal+'s Casting(s), a short comedy series about the world of cinema created by Pierre Niney and Ali Marhyar.
In 2014, he ventured into English-language productions, such as the independent British-Irish black comedy film Frank, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, in which he played Baraque, the bassist of the band Soronprfbs, led by the title character played by Michael Fassbender. Civil and the other actors of Frank performed the songs live in the film and in the album with the soundtrack. The band performed at concerts in real life to promote the film, such as the talk show The Colbert Report on 6 August 2014. Civil also played the urban explorer Papillon in the American horror film As Above, So Below, directed by John Erick Dowdle, and had a supporting role in the American mini-series Rosemary's Baby, directed by Agnieszka Holland.
In 2015, he filmed a pilot for a TV series created by Alan Ball and produced by Elton John for HBO called Virtuoso, which would be set in the 18th century and feature young musical prodigies from all over Europe who studied at the prestigious Academy of Musical Excellence in Vienna, where he would play the young Spanish guitarist and flautist Isidoro, but the channel did not pick it up as a series.
After several appearances in French TV series, in 2015 Civil landed a recurring supporting role as aspiring actor Hippolyte Rivière in the popular comedy series Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent), created by Fanny Herrero. He also had a supporting role in the thriller Made in France, directed by Nicolas Boukhrief.
Breakthrough (2016–present)
In 2016, he became known to the general public when he co-starred alongside Pierre Niney in the comedy film Five directed by Igor Gotesman, based on a 2011 short film of the same name that Civil and Gotesman had starred in. That same year, Civil and his co-stars from Five appeared in the music video for the song "Reuf" by French rapper Nekfeu, which was featured in the film's soundtrack.
In 2017, he starred in the French action film Burn Out directed by Yann Gozlan. He also played the youngest sibling of Ana Girardot and Pio Marmaï in the drama Back to Burgundy (Ce qui nous lie), directed by Cédric Klapisch.
He was a member of the jury of the "33 short films" section of the 2018 Cabourg Film Festival, and was also a member of the Revelation jury at the 2018 Deauville American Film Festival presided by Cédric Kahn.
The year 2019 allowed him to lead several projects: first the geopolitical thriller The Wolf's Call (Le Chant du loup) by Antonin Baudry; then in Safy Nebbou's psychological thriller Who You Think I Am (Celle que vous croyez) alongside Juliette Binoche; then he co-starred with Joséphine Japy in the romantic comedy Love at Second Sight (Mon Inconnue) directed by Hugo Gélin, which earned him the Best Actor award at the L'Alpe d'Huez Film…