Irène Jacob

Born: 11 July 1966
Where: Paris, France

Irène grew up in Switzerland, was educated in Geneva and London and then took to the stage.

It was while she was working in the theatre that Jacob was spotted by director Louis Malle, who cast her in his Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) - her first screen role.

In 1991, after making a few more French films, Jacob shot to stardom as the lead of Kieslowksi's The Double Life of Véronique. Cast in a dual role as the Polish Veronika and the French Véronique, two women who lead different but indelibly interconnected lives, Jacob drew raves for her performance and won the Cannes Festival's Best Actress Award.

Although she was subsequently flooded with offers to star in a number of American films - including Indecent Proposal - Jacob largely focused her talents on small French films, again earning international plaudits in 1994 as the protagonist of Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs: Rouge.

Much of her work since then has been for a variety of European directors, on such films as Othello (1995) - which required her, as Desdemona, to do all of her lines in English, alongside Kenneth Branagh.

Jacob has appeared in the occasional American film, most notably George Hickenlooper's The Big Brass Ring (1999), a political drama that cast her as a journalist on the prowl for campaign scandal.

Recently Irène has been back in France making more movies for her native film industry.