François-Xavier Demaison French Actor

Early life

François-Xavier Demaison was born on 22 September 1973 in Asnières-sur-Seine, near Paris. Both of his parents were lawyers. He began by studying theatre, then turned to economics and graduated in 1998 from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, usually called Sciences Po. His education also includes the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and the drama school Cours Florent.

Career

Demaison did not start out in the performing arts. After Sciences Po he worked as an auditor and then joined Landwell & Associés, the law firm linked to PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he specialised in international taxation. In August 2001 he was sent to the firm's New York office for an internship. After that stay he decided against continuing in the profession and went back to the theatre, getting in touch with former teachers who helped him put together his own show. The production, titled Act Two, was financed with 5,000 euros of his savings and opened at the Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell in Paris on 2 December 2002. He is described as both an actor and a stand-up comedian.

His first screen credit on record is the comedy Olé! (2005), in which he was billed fifth. Films followed steadily through the rest of the decade. They include L'Auberge rouge (2007), Coluche, l'histoire d'un mec (2008), The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (2008) and Le Petit Nicolas (2009). Coluche is among the works credited to him as notable, as is Second Chance (2010). In the same year he appeared in My Afternoons with Margueritte, one of his best-documented titles.

In the early 2010s he worked on 360 (2011), Beur sur la ville (2011), Comme des frères (2012) and Paris or Perish (2013), and he acted in Nicholas on Holiday (2014). Later credits include Arrête ton cinéma (2016), Team Spirit (2016), Wedding Unplanned (2017), Rolling to You (2018), Naked Normandy (2018) and For Sarah (2019). In the 2020s he appeared in The Sitting Duck (2022), playing Jean-Pierre Bachmann, as well as in L'Été 36 and La Tête dans les étoiles, both dated 2026. Altogether, his screen credits number forty, thirty-eight films and two television series, from 2005 to 2026.

Comedy is the genre he has worked in most often, with nine titles, followed by drama with two. Several co-stars recur in his filmography. Reem Kherici appears with him in four titles, among them Paris or Perish and Wedding Unplanned. Élie Semoun appears in three, and Kad Merad in two.

Personal life

Demaison has one child, who is not named here.