François Dominique Séraphin

François Dominique Séraphin (15 February 1747 – 5 December 1800) was a French entertainer who developed and popularised shadow plays in France. The art form would go on to be copied across Europe.

Shadow plays Séraphin was born in Longwy, near Luxembourg. The art of using shadows to form figures onto a screen can be traced back to 9th-century Indonesia and China. European travellers saw these "Ombres Chinoises" (Chinese shadows) and returned home with descriptions of their performance. Séraphin introduced his version of the act at the back of a Versailles inn during the early 1770s. Though he started the show in humble beginnings they became such a success, including regular visits from the aristocracy, The performances would continue through the French Revolution. Séraphin died in 1800 but his shows continued initially under the direction of his nephew until the theatre closed in 1870. At the height of popularity the most famous of Séraphin's shadow plays were reproduced so that children could perform them. Script details and paper versions of the characters were made in Épinal, Nancy, and Augsburg. Children would stick the characters to cardboard and cut them out, performing their own versions of the stories in small toy theatres.

He died in Paris.