Salim Kechiouche

Raised in Vaulx-en-Velin, Sal­im Kechiouche was dis­cov­ered in 1995 at the age of 15 by actor-direc­tor Gaël Morel, who offered him his first role in his fea­ture film Full Speed. He went on to appear in near­ly all Morel’s oth­er films. In par­al­lel with his bur­geon­ing career as an actor, box­ing lover Sal­im Kechiouche become France’s #1 kick­box­er in 1998 and #2 in Muay Thai in 1999 and 2002. In 1998, he worked under direc­tor François Ozon in Crim­i­nal Lovers, fol­lowed by, among oth­ers, David Oel­hof­fen in 2007’s In Your Wake, Meh­di Ben Atti in 2010’s The String and Alexan­dre Arcady in 2012’s What the Day Owes the Night. In 2013, he appeared in Abdel­latif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour, reunit­ing with the direc­tor four years lat­er in Mek­toub, My Love. In the the­ater, Sal­im Kechiouche was her­ald­ed in 2003 for his por­tray­al of Pino Pelosi, the assas­sin of Ital­ian film­mak­er Pier Pao­lo Pasoli­ni, in Michel Azama’s play “The Life and Death of Pier Pao­lo Pasoli­ni,” then again in 2009 for his role as Yaz in Rachid Jaidani’s “Boumkoeur.” He has also played major roles in such series as Spi­ral on Canal+, Gang­lands on Net­flix, and more recent­ly Ouri­ka on Prime Video. In 2020, he direct­ed his first short film, Nos gènes, and went on to direct his first fea­ture released in the­aters late last year, L’enfant du par­adis, which he also co-wrote.