When Netflix’s Lupin became a worldwide hit in 2021, millions of viewers discovered Omar Sy. In France, he had been a star for a decade, and his journey from a housing estate outside Paris to global fame is one of the most celebrated in French cinema.
Trappes
Omar Sy was born on 20 January 1978 in Trappes, in the Yvelines department west of Paris, the fourth of eight children. He grew up in social housing.
His parents
His Senegalese father, Demba, moved from Bakel to France in 1962 and worked in a car parts factory. His Mauritanian mother, Diaratou, worked as a house cleaner. The family spoke Pulaar at home and visited Senegal every other summer.
Comedy beginnings
Sy began his career in comedy, on radio and television, where his partnership with Fred Testot in the duo Omar et Fred made him a familiar face in France.
The Intouchables
His breakthrough came in the 2011 comedy-drama The Intouchables, in which he played Driss, a carer from the suburbs who forms an unlikely friendship with a wealthy man who is paralysed. The film was a huge success in France and abroad.
The César
The role won him the César Award for Best Actor, France’s top film honour. He was the first Black actor to receive it.
Hollywood
Sy went on to appear in international productions including X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jurassic World, Inferno, Transformers: The Last Knight and Jurassic World Dominion.
French films
In France, he continued to star in films such as Two Is a Family and Chocolat, in which he played the clown Chocolat, a Black performer in early twentieth-century France.
Lupin
Since 2021, he has starred in Netflix’s Lupin as Assane Diop, a gentleman thief inspired by the classic Arsène Lupin stories who sets out to avenge his Senegalese father. The series became one of Netflix’s most-watched non-English shows.
Family ties
Sy is the uncle of actor Alassane Diong, continuing the family’s connection to screen acting.
Chocolat
In Chocolat, released in 2016, Sy played Rafael Padilla, a performer who became one of the first Black stars of French entertainment in the early twentieth century. The role allowed him to explore the history of racism in France.
A smile that travels
Sy’s warmth on screen has made him one of France’s most loved actors. His story, from Trappes to the César stage and global streaming, has inspired young people in the French suburbs who rarely see themselves at the centre of the story.
