Pierre Niney

Niney was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France.^[1] His family is of Sephardic Jewish (Turkish-Jewish) and Catholic background.^[2] His father, François Niney [fr],^[3] is a film professor at Normale Sup, La Fémis and Sciences Po.^[4] His mother was born in Belgium^[5] and is an author of creative leisure manuals.^[4]

He grew up in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, and began acting when he was eleven. He studied at the lycée Claude-Monet^[4] and after completing his baccalauréat littéraire, took a course with the Compagnie Pandora during which he worked on stage direction with Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman and François Regnault. After one year he auditioned for the Cours Florent where he remained for two years; in 2009 he entered the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris.

As the youngest male member of the Comédie-Française aged 21, he gained his first experiences in the theatre^[4] under directors such as Julie Brochen at the Cartoucherie de Vincennes, Vladimir Pankov at the Théâtre Meyerhold in Moscow, and Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota. After small roles in television films and shorts, his first cinema roles were as the son of Michel Blanc's character in Nos 18 ans, a lycée student in LOL Henri Keltekian in Robert Guédiguian's L'armée du crime selected for Cannes in 2009, and alongside Benoît Poelvoorde and Isabelle Carré in Les Émotifs anonymes. His first leading role was in the 2011 film J'aime regarder les filles, which resulted in his nominationa for a César de la meilleure révélation masculine in 2012;^[6] he was nominated for the same award for Comme des frères the following year.

In 2014, Niney starred as fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the biopic of the same name directed by Jalil Lespert, for which he won a César Award for Best Actor.^[7][8] Niney commented that he faced three challenges: that he had "to play a manic depressive", that he aged in the film "from around 18 to 46 years old" and lastly "not to lose the link between all the faces of the character. He is changing so much from the little boy at the beginning of the movie, then the hippies in the 70s with the long beard and the long hair and then older again".^[9] This role marked his first portrayal of an openly gay character and earned him widespread critical acclaim.^[10][11] He was also nominated for best actor as Frantz (2016), as Mathieu Vasseur in Boîte noire (2022) and in the title role of Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (2025).

In preparation for films, for Frantz he learnt German and playing the violin,^[12] and for Sauver ou périr undertook daily training for fire-fighters for four months, gaining nine kilos in muscles for his leading role as Franck, a fireman.^[13]

In 2024, Niney portrayed Edmond Dantès in the film The Count of Monte Cristo, a major hit at the box-office^[14] The Sight and Sound reviewer commented that in "the casting of Pierre Niney ...as its vengeful, oft-disguised hero Edmond Dantès", Niney, "Not an actor previously inclined toward macho derring-do, [] has a haunted, slightly fey chill that works rather well for a character whose elaborate project of retribution ...can tip over into perversely obsessive territory. As played by Niney, ...this Dantès is sympathetic but never fully readable".^[15] He also starred in Fiasco, a 7-episode comedy miniseries that he co-created and co-wrote with Igor Gotesman for Netflix.^[16][17] Late that year it was announced that Niney will be collaborating with the team from The Count of Monte Cristo for an ambitious new adaptation of Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings novels. The series takes place during the 14th century succession crisis among the Capetian dynasty but Niney's role was not disclosed upon announcement.^[18]

Since 2008, Niney has been in a relationship with Australian actress and photographer Natasha Andrews,^[19] with whom he has two daughters: Lola, born in 2017 and Billie, born in 2019.^[3]