Mehdi Nebbou (born 10 January 1971) is a French actor.

Early life and education

Mehdi Nebbou was born on 10 January 1974 in

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon language, Gascon Occitan language, Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; ) is a Departments of France, department located in the Regions of France, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the southwest corner of metropolitan ...

, France, to a German mother and an Algerian father. His brother is the film director

Safy Nebbou Safy Nebbou (born 27 April 1968) is a French actor and director. Life and career Nebbou was born on 27 April 1968 in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France to a German mother and an Algerian father. He is the brother of actor Mehdi Nebbou. He ...

Career

He started his career by appearing in the film '' My Sweet Home'', directed by Filipos Tsitos. In 2004, the director Samir Nasr offered him the leading role in the film '' Seeds of Doubt'', which won the Golden Gate Award for best film at the

San Francisco Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by SFFILM, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and vi ...

. 2005 was a turning point in Nebbou's career thanks to the film '' Schläfer'' by German film director Benjamin Heisenberg. The film received excellent reviews and was selected for the 2005

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. In 2006, he portrayed

Ali Hassan Salameh Ali Hassan Salameh (, ; 1 April 1941 – 22 January 1979; code name: Abu Hassan) was a Palestinian militant who was the chief of operations for Black September and founder of Force 17. He was assassinated in January 1979 as part of an assass ...

in the

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

blockbuster film ''

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

''. In 2007, for his performance in '' Teresas Zimmer'', directed by German film director

Constanze Knoche Constanze is a feminine given name related to Constance (given name), Constance. It is borne by: * Constanze Backes, German opera and concert soprano * Constanze Blum (born 1972), German cross-country skier * Constanze Engelbrecht (1950–2000), Ge ...

, he won the award for best actor at First Steps Awards. In 2008, Nebbou worked in the

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

film '' Body of Lies'' with

Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (; ; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for Leonardo DiCaprio filmography, his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received ...

. In it, he portrayed Nizar, an Iraqi

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

doctorate turned

Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

operative who approaches

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

to defect after being enlisted by his

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism for modern, armed militant Political aspects of Islam, Islamic movements that seek to Islamic state, establish states based on Islamic principles. In a narrower sense, it refers to the belief that armed confrontation ...

superiors for suicide bombing. In addition, he played in several French TV series and films, among them as a disabled ex-middleweight boxing world champion in '' Douce France'' for which he won the award for best actor in 2009 at the Rochelle TV Festival. He played Mustafa Larbi, a sadistic and unpredictable drug dealer, in season 2 of ''

Spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point. It is a subtype of whorled patterns, a broad group that also includes concentric objects. Two-dimensional A two-dimension ...

'', the successful

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

TV series. In 2010, he portrayed Bruno in the

Salvatore Allocca Salvatore may refer to: * Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * "Salvatore", a song by Lana Del Rey, on her 2015 album ''Honeymoon (Lana Del Rey album), Honeymoon'' * Salvat ...

Italian romantic comedy '' Come trovare nel modo giusto l'uomo sbagliato'' and in 2011, Amin in the French action film '' Forces spéciales'' with Diane Krüger. In 2012, he had his breakthrough into the Indian film industry thanks to the film '' English Vinglish'', starring

Sridevi Sridevi Kapoor (née Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan; 13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), known mononymously as Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. She is regarded as one of ...

. He portrayed the lead in '' Les heures souterraines'', directed by

Philippe Harel Philippe Harel (born 22 December 1956) is a French film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors ...

and inspired by the novel of Delphine de Vigan in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, he played Cyclone in six episodes of season 1 and 2 of '' Le Bureau des Légendes.'' Also In 2016, he was the co-lead in the Romanian movie '' The Fixer'' directed by

Adrian Sitaru Adrian Sitaru () is a Romanian director, producer and actor, born in 1971. He is the author of several short films, of which ''Valuri'' ("Waves", 2007), the most well-known, has received numerous prizes. Sitaru also worked with Costa Gavras in the ...

, about human traffic in Europe and under-age prostitution. In 2017, he played a lead role in the second season of the Norwegian series '' Occupied'' and in the German series '' Deutschland 86''. He stars the Netflix series ''

Baby In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to Juvenile (orga ...

'' (2018) directed by Andrea De Sica and Anna Negri. In 2021, he played a middle-east investor in the movie "

House of Gucci ''House of Gucci'' is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the 2001 book ''The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed'' by Sara Gay Forden. The film follows Patri ...

" by Ridley Scott.

Personal life

Mehdi is fluent in French, German, English, and Italian.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nebbou, Mehdi 1974 births Living people 20th-century French male actors 21st-century French male actors French male film actors French male television actors French people of Algerian descent Male actors of Algerian descent French people of German descent People from Bayonne Male actors from Nouvelle-Aquitaine