Romain Duris
Born: May 28 1974
Where: Paris, France
The actor received critical acclaim for his portrayal of a classically trained pianist with a sideline in extortion in The Beat That My Heart Skipped.
He has also impressed in more light romantic roles such as The Adventures of Arsene Lupin with Eva Green and the enjoyable Moliere, a conceit about a missing three months of the playwright.
The son of an engineer, he was originally set on a career as a painter before he was talent spotted by director Cedric Klapisch while waiting in the street outside his Paris high school.
He was cast in the minor inverted Big Chill-type cult hit the Good Old Daze and went on to appear in Frères: La roulette rouge.
Duris continued to appear in Franch fare, including Dobermann with Vincent Cassel in 1997.
The same year he was nominated for a best newcomer award for Tony Gatlif's comedy-drama Gadjo Dilo.
The following year he starred in Olivier Dahan's Deja mort and landed a second most promising actor nod for Klapisch's sci-fi drama Peut-etre in 1999.
Duris attracted attention outside his native France with the Barcelona-set Euro-comedy L'Auberge espagnole and went on to star alongside Kate Hudson in James Ivory's rom-com Le Divorce in 2003.
The following year he played the title role in the action-adventure yarn Arsene Lupin with Kristin Scott Thomas before being cast in The Beat That My Heart Skipped.
Duris played the role made famous by Harvey Keitel in the American original -Fingers - and was taught to play the piano for the part by his sister Caroline, a concert pianist.
(he threatened to kill Gus Van Sant's dog after the director claimed every domestic sex scene in the movie was akin to rape.)
In 2006, Duris appeared in the L'Auberge espagnol sequel Russian Dolls and Christophe Honore's drama Dans Paris.
Recent work includes the role of celebrated French playwright Moliere.
