Smaïn

Smaïn (born Smaïn Fairouze; January 3, 1958, in Constantine, Algeria) is a French comedian, humorist, writer, actor and director of Algerian descent.

Biography Childhood Born in 1958 in Constantine, Algeria, to an unknown father and mother, Smaïn Fairouze was taken in by the children's ward of the civil hospital. In 1960, brought back to France by an administrative assistant, he joined his foster family. His adoptive father, a street sweeper at the Régie immobilière de la ville de Paris, was Algerian and his adoptive mother, a cleaning lady, was Moroccan. He attended the Notre-Dame school in Saint-Mandé and then the Saint-Michel high school in St Mandé. During his childhood, he practiced choral singing for many years.

Smaïn, to break into the world of show business, counted on the limitless support of his adoptive parents:

Professional career Smaïn began with a long career in café-théâtre in the , performing in small Parisian cabarets. Later, he met Philippe Bouvard who offered him a place in his Théâtre de Bouvard. It was there that he expanded his circle of friends by meeting Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan, Pascal Légitimus and Seymour Brussel. With these four companions, he formed a small comedy group, Les Cinq, which toured for a few years.

Smaïn ended up choosing the solo show. Little by little, with the help of his pianist Alain Bernard, he found success and performed in shows over the years: beur in 1986 broadcast on (version filmed at the International Festival of Actors' Performance of June 1987) on La Cinq, T'en veux ? in 1989, and Comme ça se prononce in 1996, a show for which he won the Molière for best , a Victoire de la musique as well as a Grand Prix Sacem. At the same time, Smaïn was offered more and more roles in the cinema, notably in L'Œil au beur(re) noir, a film which received the César for best first film in 1988.

He also participated in several shows by Les Enfoirés in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998.

In 2008, he recorded with the Orchestre de la Suisse romande, Le Carnaval des animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns, for which he wrote the libretto. This will be followed by a collaboration with the Pau Pays de Béarn Orchestra who commissioned several musical tales for orchestra, Rayane and the Maestro, The Disappeared of the and most recently The Fabulous Journey of the Traveling Music Stand.

In 2009, he was part of the jury of the show France has incredible talent, during the fourth season, replacing Patrick Dupond, and collaborates with Michel Legrand on the production of his album Délit de fa dièse.

In 2012, Smaïn returned to the stage of the Théâtre Rive Gauche in the play Réactions en chaîne, which he performed from January to March.

In 2014, he participated in a video clip in support of the Algerian head of state Abdelaziz Bouteflika as part of the presidential campaign. Like other artists, he then indicates that this recovery was done without his knowledge, and that it was initially only a piece paying tribute to Algeria.

In 2019, he participated in the first season of the show The Masked Singer, in the costume of the monster and he was eliminated during the third show and finished tenth.

Distinctions

Filmography Actor Cinema 1982: Don't laugh... it's a joke! by Jacques Besnard: A worker 1982: Le Grand Frère by Francis Girod: Abdel 1984: La Smala by Jean-Loup Hubert: a young Maghrebian 1984: Femmes de personne by Christopher Frank: a radiologist assistant 1985: The Phone Always Rings Twice by Jean-Pierre Vergne: Momo 1986: The Pétard Brothers by Hervé Palud: a drug smuggler 1986: Happiness Strikes Again by Jean-Luc Trotignon: the deputy 1987: Flag by Jacques Santi: Abdel 1987: The Black Eye by Serge Meynard: Rachid 1989: I Should Never Have Met His look by Jean-Marc Longval: Bambi 1990: On peut toujours rêver by and with Pierre Richard: Rachid Merzahoui 1992: Siméon by Euzhan Palcy 1994: Parano, sketch film: Jimmy 1995: Tom is all alone by Fabien Onteniente: the street musician (cameo) 1995: Three Lives and One Death by Raoul Ruiz : Luca 1996: Les Deux Papas et la Maman by Jean-Marc Longval: Salim 1998: Charité biz'ness by Thierry Barthes: Sam 1998: Bingo ! by Maurice Ilouz: Vincent 1999: Recto/Verso by Jean-Marc Longval (with Michel Muller): Fred 1999: Le Schpountz by Gérard Oury: Irénée 2000: by Karim Abbou: M. Fonblard 2003: Rien que du bonheur by Denis Parent: himself 2003: Les Clefs de bagnole by Laurent Baffie: an actor who refuses to shoot with Laurent 2012: Pauvre Richard by Malik Chibane: Farid 2013: A Little Guy from Ménilmontant by Alain Minier: Maklouf 2014: The Bag of Flour by (Kadija Leclere): Sarah's Father 2014: Certified halal by Mahmoud Zemmouri: Aziz 2015: The Doors of the Sun by Jean-Marc Minéo: Slimane 2022: Placed by Nessim Chikhaoui: Elias' father 2022: The Imaginary Doctor by Ahmed Hamidi: Inspector Bachir 2023: The Little Blond of the Casbah by Alexandre Arcady: M. Farès

Short film 2016: by Pascal Lastrajoli: Luc 2019: You'll go to paradise by Rost and Thomas Keumurian: Nabil

Television 1983: Dorothée: The Show 2001: Commissariat Bastille by Gilles Béhat : Captain Mo Toumani The Red Jacket (2001) Crossfire (2001) 2002: Commissariat Bastille by Jean-Marc Seban The Most Beautiful Age (2002) Countdown (2002) Hunting License (2002) Cast in Concrete (2002) 2005: A cooking teacher by Christiane Lehérissey: Adam Touami 2006: For the love of God by Zakia Tahri-Bouchaâla: Kevin's father 2006: Harkis by Alain Tasma: Saïd 2010: Tomboy (TV film for ) by David Delrieux: Amrani 2011: Camping Paradis (TV series - , A Ghost in Paradise): Christian Dissaut 2014-2015: Brothers in Arms, TV series historical by Rachid Bouchareb and Pascal Blanchard: presentation by Saiaeng Wahena 2016: At your service (TV series - ) by Florian Hessique: the bailiff 2020: Sam (TV series - , ): Moscow

Director 1994: À quoi ça rime (short film) 1996: Les Deux Papas et la Maman (co-directed with Jean-Marc Longval)

Dubbing 1981: Le Mystère de la troisième planète: Professeur Newton 2007: Franky Snow (animated series): Franky Snow

Narrator 2004: Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, direction orchestra Fayçal Karoui 2008: The Story of the Little Tailor by Tibor Harsányi and The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns, orchestral direction Yannis Pouspourikas, pianists Caroline Sageman and Lidija Bizjak (Lyrinx) 2014: Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev and The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns, orchestral direction Raphaël Brunon at the Théâtre du Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire)

Theatre

1986: beur 1988: Prise de tête 1989: T'en veux ? 1992: Zizi Rider 1996: Comme ça se prononce 1998: En attendant le soleil 2004: Rebelote 2013: Mon dernier... avant le prochain

Actor 1985: Tous aux abris by J.-J. Burat, directed by Philippe Ogouz, Théâtre Saint Martin 1994: Les Fourberies de Scapin by Molière, directed by Jean-Luc Moreau, Théâtre du Gymnase 1995: Les Fourberies de Scapin by Molière, directed by Jean-Luc Moreau, tour 2011: Réactions en chaîne by Smaïn and Jean-Marc Longval, directed by Pascal Légitimus, tour 2012: Réactions en chaîne by Smaïn and Jean-Marc Longval, directed by Marion Sarraut, Théâtre Rive Left 2013: La Ménagère improvisée by Smaïn, Éric Carrière and Jean-Marc Longval, directed by Gil Galliot, Théâtre L'Archipel

Director 2001: We said we'd meet up in , play by Vincent Azé, Théâtre Rive Gauche 2003: Sandrine Alexi: Prise de têtes, Comédie-Caumartin 2007: Les Glandeurs nature, Théâtre du Gymnase Marie-Bell 2018: by Jeff Freza, Théâtre du Marais

TV shows 2002: Who wants to be a millionaire? with Évelyne Dhéliat (earnings ) 2003: on TF1 2009: France has incredible talent on M6 2019: on TF1

Publication .