Virginie Efira

1998–2008: Television anchor

She was first hired by Club RTL (a Belgian TV channel in the RTL Group) to present a children's show called Mégamix. She went on to present other programmes in Belgium, including A la recherche de la nouvelle Star. In September 2002, she was offered the job of the presenter of Belgium's version of Star Academy.

After becoming a weather forecast presenter on the M6 channel in France, she soon became one of M6's main public faces, presenting shows such as Le Grand Zap, La saga des ..., Follement Gay, Absolument 80/90, Le Grand Piège and Drôles d'équipes. She was the host of Classé Confidentiel for one year, before replacing Benjamin Castaldi as the host of the popular musical reality show Nouvelle Star for the end of the show's fourth series. She also presented shows on RTL-TVi (a spin-off channel in the RTL Group).

2004–2015: Early roles and romantic parts

Efira's film career began in 2004, appearing as Dr. Liz Wilson in the French-language version of Garfield: The Movie, as well as playing Piper in the French version of the 2005 film Robots. She also voiced the characters of Kitty Softpaws in Puss in Boots and Mavis in Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015). Efira also guest-starred in two episodes of the highly successful French show Kaamelott.

In 2010, she participated in Rendez-vous en terre inconnue. Efira next had a supporting role as a social worker in the comedy drama My Worst Nightmare (2011) directed by Anne Fontaine, opposite Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Poelvoorde and André Dussollier. The following year, she won the Audience Award at the 2nd Magritte Awards.^[4]

In 2013, Efira starred alongside Pierre Niney in the romantic comedy It Boy, about a 38-year-old woman and her relationship with a teenage boy. The film was highly successful in France and received positive reviews. Variety wrote that she "has a particular talent for transmitting thoughts and eliciting laughs using facial expressions alone, a gift that gets another glorious workout here".^[5]

2016–2021: Expansion to dramatic roles

In 2016, Efira starred in Justine Triet's romantic comedy-drama In Bed with Victoria, which premiered in the International Critics' Week section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Her performance received critical acclaim, with The Hollywood Reporter describing it as "vibrant" and "well-tuned", and earned her the Magritte Award for Best Actress as well as her first César Award for Best Actress nomination.^[6] That same year, she appeared alongside Isabelle Huppert in Paul Verhoeven's psychological thriller Elle. Following the success of both films, Efira increasingly took on more ambitious dramatic roles.^[7]

In 2018, she starred in Catherine Corsini's drama An Impossible Love, portraying a woman over more than three decades of her life. Her performance was widely praised, earning Cesar Award, Globe de Cristal Award and Lumière Award nominations for Best Actress.^[8][9] That same year, Efira appeared in the ensemble comedy Sink or Swim, which was screened out of competition at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, earning her a César Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Efira continued her collaboration with acclaimed French auteurs in Sibyl, her second film with Justine Triet. Premiering in competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the film further established her as one of France's leading dramatic actresses, with Variety describing her as "a first-class leading lady of consistently expanding range and elan".^[10] In 2020, Efira starred as a terminally ill hairdresser seeking to reunite with her long-lost child in Albert Dupontel's comedy-drama Bye Bye Morons. The film became a major commercial and critical success in France, winning seven César Awards, including Best Film, and earning Efira her third nomination for Best Actress. ^[11]

In 2021, Efira reunited with Paul Verhoeven for the title role in the historical drama Benedetta, portraying the 17th-century Italian nun whose mystical visions and forbidden relationship with another nun challenge religious authority.^[12]

2022-present: Established actress

In 2023, Efira won her first César Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the film Paris Memories (2022),^[13] in which she played a woman who is struggling with the lingering mental health effects of having survived a terrorist attack in Paris, a role originally intended for Nicole Kidman.^[14] Her performance in Rebecca Zlotowski's drama Other People's Children (2022) earned her high praise from critics. The Hollywood Reporter called it "a career-best turn" and "her best work yet as a woman who, compared to the usual Parisian narcissists and neurotics, is a model of selflessness."^[15] Also in 2023, Efira continued to work with female French filmmakers and had two films premiere at the Cannes Film Festival: the psychological drama Just the Two of Us, for which she earned her sixth César Award for Best Actress nomination, and the drama All to Play For.

Efira starred in two films selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival: Asghar Farhadi's Parallel Tales and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden. In the latter, she portrayed the director of a nursing home seeking to implement the Humanitude approach to elderly care, whose convictions are challenged after meeting a terminally ill Japanese playwright. The film received widespread critical acclaim and her performance earned her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress.^[16]

Feature films

Television

Dubbing