Nawell Madani

Nawell Madani (born 25th October 1979 in Watermael-Boitsfort, Belgium) is an Algerian-Belgian comedian, television presenter and producer. She first received wide recognition in 2012 due to the Jamel Comedy Club.

Biography Born to Algerian parents, Nawel grew up in Belgium in a family of 6 children. She suffered third-degree burns at the age of 2, and was a tomboy for most of her childhood and adolescence. Her father is a taxi driver and her mother is a nurse.

She moved to Paris at the age of 21, at first with the ambition to become a professional choreographer and dancer, returned to Belgium, and left again. After several tours as a choreographer, she gave up this career: "the artistic directors asked us to wear a bikini. They don’t give a damn about the dance", she declared. She was briefly an artistic director of a nightclub in Antwerp. and those of the “Laboratory of the Actor” directed by Hélène Zidi-Chéruy. This was how she was spotted in a small room, The Pranzo, by the artistic director of the Jamel Comedy Club who invited her to a casting to join the team created by Jamel Debbouze. Madani was the only woman to join the team. In September 2011 she began her career as a comedian. In 2013, she founded the collective Jam’Girls, a television programme which met a new generation of female comedians, broadcast on Chérie 25 and Comédie. In 2014 she went for her first one-woman show, C'est moi la plus belge ("I am more Belgian"), in the Palais des Glaces in Paris and did the tour of the Zeniths in France. She talked about taboo subjects, such as the virginity of North African women, or homosexuality. She took a place in the festival Juste pour rire of Montreal in July 2014.

In 2015, she won Best One-Man Show in the Globe de Cristal Awards.

Filmography Year Title Role Director Notes 2012 Boulevard du Palais Saïda Bouati Christian Bonnet TV series (1 episode) Lascars Sylvie Tristan Aurouet TV series (2 episodes) 2017 Alibi.com Cynthia Philippe Lacheau C'est tout pour moi Lila Nawell Madani & Ludovic Colbeau-Justin 2021 Stuck Together Leïla Dany Boon L'enfant de personne Myriam Akim Isker TV movie 2023 La tête dans les étoiles Nathalie Emmanuel Gillibert Jusqu'ici tout va bien Fara Nawell Madani & Lionel Smila TV series (8 episodes)

Awards and nominations Year Award Nominated work Result 2015 Globe de Cristal Award for Best Stand-Up C'est moi la plus belge 2018 Magritte Award for Most Promising Actress C'est tout pour moi