Louis Garrel

French film actor, director, and screenwriter

Louis Garrel is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in The Dreamers, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. He has regularly appeared in films by French director Christophe Honoré, including Ma Mère, Dans Paris, Love Songs, The Beautiful Person and Making Plans for Lena. He has also been in films directed by his father, Philippe Garrel, including Regular Lovers, Frontier of the Dawn, A Burning Hot Summer, and Jealousy.

Garrel was born in Paris, France, the son of director Philippe Garrel and actress Brigitte Sy, and the brother of actress Esther Garrel. His grandfather, Maurice Garrel, and his godfather, Jean-Pierre Léaud, are also notable French actors. His maternal grandfather was of Sephardic Jewish descent. He is a graduate of the Conservatoire de Paris. Garrel was six when he first appeared onscreen in the film Les Baisers de secours. Twelve years later, he appeared in Ceci est mon corps.

In 2002, Garrel gained international recognition playing Eva Green's twin brother in The Dreamers. Director Bernardo Bertolucci found him on the first session of casting in Paris. Garrel has starred in various French films, including Les Amants réguliers (2005), directed by his father Philippe Garrel. He was awarded the César Award for Most Promising Actor for his work in the film.

Garrel has collaborated five times with filmmaker Christophe Honoré in the feature films Ma Mère (2004), an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Georges Bataille; Dans Paris (2006); Love Songs (2007); The Beautiful Person (2008); Making Plans for Lena (2009); and Two Friends (2015). He also appeared in Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's Actrices (2007), Rachid Hami's Choisir d'aimer (2008) and Philipe Garrel's Frontier of the Dawn (2008).

In 2008, he launched into directing with his short film Mes copains. Two years later, he directed the short film Petit Tailleur.

He appeared in Heartbeats, by director Xavier Dolan, released in 2010. In 2011, Garrel directed the short film La Règle de trois, with Vincent Macaigne and Golshifteh Farahani, which he presented at the Locarno Festival.

In 2014, he played Jacques de Bascher, the lover of Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent in Bertrand Bonello's film Saint Laurent.

His directional debut film Two Friends, starring Golshifteh Farahani, Vincent Macaigne and himself, was released in 2015.

In 2019, Garrel starred in An Officer and a Spy directed by Roman Polanski, which revolved around the Dreyfus affair. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August 2019, and was released in November 2019. The same year, he starred in Little Women, based upon novel of the same name.

In 2020, Garrel starred in Rifkin's Festival directed by Woody Allen, DNA directed by Maïwenn, and in 2021, The Story of My Wife opposite Léa Seydoux, directed by Ildikó Enyedi.