Romain Duris (born 28 May 1974) is a French actor. He is best known for his role in Cédric Klapisch's Spanish Apartment trilogy, which consists of L'Auberge Espagnole (2002), Russian Dolls (2005), and Chinese Puzzle (2013). He has also gained wide recognition for The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), and various other roles since then.

Personal life and education

Duris was born in Paris, son of a father who is an engineer-architect and a mother who is a dancer. His father is related to Armand-Gaston Camus and his wife; the French revolutionist was an archivist who founded the Archives nationales. His mother is a descendant of 18th-century Swedish painter Alexander Roslin and his wife. Duris has a sister, pianist Caroline Duris, who played on the soundtrack of the film The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), in which he acted. Duris studied arts at university but first decided to follow a career in music, forming a jazz-funk band. Music remains a major interest. Before going into acting, he started an acid-jazz band in which he was a drummer. In 1995, he was featured in a pop video for singer Princess Erika, "Faut qu'j'travaille" (I Need To Work), where he played the role of a small-time gangster. Duris lives in Paris near La Bastille, with his actress girlfriend Olivia Bonamy. They have two sons Luigi, born 10 February 2009, and another son born in 2013.

Film career

In 1993, Duris was noticed whilst waiting in a queue by a casting director and was offered a part in the Cédric Klapisch film Le péril jeune (1994). His regular collaborations with Klapisch include the Spanish Apartment Trilogy (L'Auberge Espagnole, The Russian Dolls, and Chinese Puzzle), where he played French exchange student Xavier Rousseau, one of his best-known roles. Duris gained international recognition for his performance in the film The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), for which he won the Lumières Award for Best Actor and received his first nomination for the César Award for Best Actor. He has since gone onto become a major star in the French film industry and has starred in many successful and critically acclaimed films: Dans Paris (2006), Paris (2008), Heartbreaker (2010), The Big Picture (2010), Populaire (2012), Mood Indigo (2013), The New Girlfriend (2014), All the Money in the World (2017), The Animal Kingdom (2023), The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023) and The Three Musketeers: Milady (2023). His roles have ranged from gangsters as in Dobermann through romantic leads as in Heartbreaker to action heroes as in Arsène Lupin.

Filmography