Sami Outalbali

Sami Outalbali was born in Poissy, Yvelines, on 19 March 1999.^[1] He has Moroccan and Guadeloupean ancestry.^[2] At the age of 3, he appeared in a Disney advertisement.^[3]

Outalbali first appeared on screen in the France 3 television film Il faut sauver Saïd in 2006.^[4] In 2011, he played a minor role in the comedy film Les Tuche.^[5]

He had his breakout role in the OCS teen drama series Grown Ups [fr] (French: Les Grands; 2016–2019),^[5][6] created by Vianney Lebasque [fr], in which he portrays Ilyes, a gay high school student coming to terms with his sexuality.^[7] In 2018, he appeared in the first part of the Arte miniseries Proud [fr] (French: Fiertés), created by Philippe Faucon.^[3][8] In 2019, he starred in Laurent Micheli's Lola and Benjamin Parent's Un vrai bonhomme [fr].^[4][6] That same year, he also appeared in the Netflix supernatural series Mortel as a missing teenager called Reda, the older brother of Sofiane (Carl Malapa).^[9][10][11]

In 2019, he joined the cast of the second series of the Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education in a recurring role.^[12] On the show, which marks his English-speaking debut, he portrays Rahim Harrack, a French exchange student who becomes a love interest of Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa).^[1][10] He also returned for the show's third series.^[13][10] In August 2020, he starred in the music video for the single "Coup de Blues/Soleil" by Bigflo & Oli.^[14]

In 2019, he was cast in Leyla Bouzid's romantic drama film A Tale of Love and Desire as Ahmad Ouannas, a young French man of Algerian origin, who experiences a sexual awakening after meeting a Tunisian woman (Zbeida Belhajamor [fr]).^[15] The film premiered in the Critics' Week section of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.^[16] For this role, Outalbali was nominated for Best Male Revelation at the 27th Lumière Awards^[17] and Most Promising Actor at the 47th César Awards.^[18][19]

In April 2022, he served as a member of the jury at the 5th Canneseries festival in Cannes.^[20][21] He appeared in Cédric Jimenez's 2022 film Novembre.^[22][11]

As of 2020, Outalbali resides in Paris.^[8]