Son of a nurse and a bank employee, Benoît Magimel was born in Paris and grew up there. At age 12, he played Momo in La vie est un long fleuve tranquille (1988) by Étienne Chatiliez. He stopped his studies at age 16 to become an actor.

But he had a dual personality: on one hand the man of low budget films like La fille seule (1995), Une minute de silence (1998), Le roi danse (2000), Déjà mort (1998), Les voleurs (1996), Selon Matthieu (2000) alongside Nathalie Baye, La fleur du mal (2003), Errance (2003), Les enfants du siècle (1999) with Juliette Binoche, La demoiselle d'honneur (2004) with Laura Smet, La pianiste (2001) alongside Isabelle Huppert, and on the other hand also wide audience releases like Nid de guêpes (2002), Les rivières pourpres II - Les anges de l'apocalypse (2004), Trouble (2005), Effroyables jardins (2003), and Les chevaliers du ciel (2005).

Charming, ambiguous, talented Benoit Magimel will probably illuminate the next decade, and more.