Virginie Efira

Virginie Efira (born 5 May 1977) is a Belgian and French actress.

Efira was born on 5 May 1977 in the Brugmann district of Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of Professor André Efira, an hemato-oncologist, and Carine Verelst.

She has Greek-Jewish ancestry.

Efira has three siblings.

She grew up in Schaerbeek.

Her parents divorced when she was 18.

Efira studied Latin, math, psychology and social sciences in Brussels.

She relocated to Paris at age 28.

She was first hired by Club RTL (a Belgian TV channel in the RTL Group) to present a children's show called Mégamix.

She went on to present other programmes in Belgium, including A la recherche de la nouvelle Star.

In September 2002, she was offered the job of the presenter of Belgium's version of Star Academy.

After becoming a weather forecast presenter on the M6 channel in France, she soon became one of M6's main public faces, presenting shows such as Le Grand Zap, La saga des ..., Follement Gay, Absolument 80/90, Le Grand Piège and Drôles d'équipes.

She was the host of Classé Confidentiel for one year, before replacing Benjamin Castaldi as the host of the popular musical reality show Nouvelle Star for the end of the show's fourth series.

She also presented shows on RTL-TVi (a spin-off channel in the RTL Group).

Efira's film career began in 2004, appearing as Dr. Liz Wilson in the French-language version of Garfield: The Movie, as well as playing Piper in the French version of the 2005 film Robots.

In 2010, she participated in Rendez-vous en terre inconnue.

Efira next had a supporting role as a social worker in the comedy drama My Worst Nightmare (2011) directed by Anne Fontaine, opposite Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Poelvoorde and André Dussollier.

The following year, she won the Audience Award at the 2nd Magritte Awards.

She also voiced the characters of Kitty Softpaws in Puss in Boots and Mavis in Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015).

Efira also guest-starred in two episodes of the highly successful French show Kaamelott.

She had her first leading role in the romantic comedy It Boy (2013).

In 2013, Efira starred alongside Pierre Niney in the romantic comedy It Boy, about a 38-year-old woman and her relationship with a teenage boy.

The film was highly successful in France and received positive reviews.

Variety wrote that she "has a particular talent for transmitting thoughts and eliciting laughs using facial expressions alone, a gift that gets another glorious workout here".

Efira subsequently received critical praise for her performance in the comedy drama In Bed with Victoria (2016), for which she received a Magritte Award for Best Actress as well as a César Award for Best Actress nomination.

She then appeared in Paul Verhoeven's psychological thriller Elle (2016), the drama An Impossible Love (2018), the comedy drama Sibyl (2019) and the black comedy Bye Bye Morons (2020).

In 2023, she won a César Award for Best Actress for Paris Memories (2022).

In 2016, Efira starred in the romantic comedy-drama In Bed with Victoria, about a single mother and criminal lawyer who goes through a midlife crisis.

The film was screened in the International Critics' Week section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it obtained very favourable reviews.

Efira's performance was described by The Hollywood Reporter as both "vibrant" and "well-tuned", and earned her a Magritte Award for Best Actress as well as a César Award for Best Actress nomination.

That same year, Efira had a small but crucial role opposite Isabelle Huppert in Paul Verhoeven's psychological thriller Elle.

Her final release of 2016 was Up for Love, a romantic comedy with Jean Dujardin, in which she played a lawyer who falls in love with a man of diminutive stature.

The following year, she made a guest appearance as herself in one episode of the successful French series Call My Agent!.

In 2018, Efira took on the leading role in the drama An Impossible Love, Catherine Corsini's adaptation of the best-selling novel by Christine Angot – the story of the incestuous father of Angot and her mother who has not seen anything.

The film and her performance received critical acclaim.

Screen International felt that the actress "previously known for lighter material (In Bed With Victoria), shows herself more than capable of a heavyweight dramatic role, subtly maturing from romantic 20s to careworn middle age" and also added that "she offers a powerful, assured performance in a film that's likely to score highly both as a superior and very accessible melodrama and as an intelligent conversation piece".

She received Cesar Award, Globe de Cristal Award and Lumières Award nominations in the Best Actress category for her performance in the film.

That same year, Efira was part of the ensemble cast in the comedy Sink or Swim directed by Gilles Lellouche, which was screened out of competition at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and earned her a Cesar Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress.

Also in 2018, her performance in the drama Keep Going was praised, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that she "is excellent here as a woman caught between her fiercely independent nature and her desire to be a good mother, trying to steer her son on the right path".

The following year, Efira starred in the comedy drama Sibyl, her second collaboration with director Justine Triet, playing a psychotherapist who wants to return to writing.