Name
Simon Abkarian
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1962-03-05 (64 years old)
Place of Birth
Gonesse, Val d'Oise, France
Biography
Simon Abkarian (born 5 March 1962) is a French-Armenian actor.
Born in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, of Armenian descent, Abkarian spent his childhood in Lebanon. He moved to Los Angeles, where he joined an Armenian theater company managed by Gerald Papazian. He returned to France in 1985, settling in Paris. He took classes at the Acting International school, then he joined Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil.
Abkarian left the Théâtre du Soleil in 1993 and played in 2001 "Beast on the Moon" by Richard Kalinoski, directed by Irina Brook, a play about the life of a survivor of the Genocide of the Armenians, a role which won him critical acclaims and the Molière of the best comedian.
His first roles in cinema were proposed by French filmaker Cédric Klapisch, who asked him to play in several of his movies, notably in "Chacun cherche son chat" ("When the Cat is Away" (1996) and in "Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)" en 2003.
He was featured in Sally Potter's Yes (2004), in which he played the lead role.
Abkarian then played Mehdi Ben Barka in the thriller "J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka" by Serge Le Péron, about the kidnapping and the murder of the leader of the Moroccan opposition. He then played in "Prendre Femme" by Ronit Elkabetz which won him several interpretation prizes. Playing different roles and in different genres, he was featured in the adventure "Zaïna, cavalière de l'Atlas" by Bourlem Guerdjou, in the comedy "Le Démon de midi" by Marie-Pascale Osterriet. He has also appeared in Atom Egoyan's Ararat (2002), he was Albert in Almost Peaceful (2004) by French Director Michel Deville a film about Holocaust survivors, he was featured in "Your Dreams" (2005) by Denis Thybaud. He played the role of villain Alex Dimitrios in the James Bond film, Casino Royale. The character is a Government contractor and arms dealer working against Bond.
He was featured as Sahak in the thriller "Les Mauvais Joueurs" ("The Gamblers") (2007) by Frédéric Balekdjian. He has also been the voice of Ebi in the French version of the animated feature "Persepolis". Abkarian played the role of the eminent Armenian poet Missak Manouchianin in "Army of Crime" (2010) by Robert Guédiguian, a French filmaker based in Marseilles, who is also of Armenian parentage.
He has also played Dariush Bakhshi, the Iranian Special Consul, in the BBC drama Spooks MI-5.
Abkarian is known for his intensity in acting and for his ecclectism in the roles he choses.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Simon Abkarian, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia .
Known For
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- 2007 Trivial as Pierre
- 2007 Persepolis as Marjane's Father (voice)
- 2006 The Snake as Sam
- 2009 Army of Crime as Missak Manouchian
- 2004 To Take A Wife as Eliyahoo
- 1996 When the Cat's Away as Carlos
- 2003 Not For, or Against (Quite the Contrary) as Freddy
- 2005 Yes as He
- 2008 The Seven Days as Eliyau
- 2021 Permis de construire as Müller
- 2009 Rage as Merlin
- 2022 Overdose as Daniel Prat
- 2021 Off-Season as Anthony
- 2006 Casino Royale as Alex Dimitrios
- 2002 Almost Peaceful as Albert
- 2010 Turk's Head as Le veuf
- 2021 Black Notebooks
- 2002 Ararat as Arshile Gorky
- 2008 Secrets of State as Al Barad
- 2008 The Wedding Song as Raoul
- 2022 Restless as Antoine Marelli
- 2006 Armenia as Sarkis Arabian
- 2005 Les mauvais joueurs as Sahak
- 2012 Zarafa as Hassan (voice)
- 2005 The Demon Stirs as Julien Cestac
- 2011 Force as Jimi Weiss
- 2022 The Way to Happiness as Saül Birnbaum
- 2002 Aram as Aram
- 2011 Les Amants naufragés as Milo Garavan
- 2026 De Gaulle: Liberté as Charles de Gaulle
- 2026 De Gaulle: Résistance as Charles de Gaulle
- 1997 The Silence of Rak as Customer
- 2013 Angélique as L'avocat François Desgrez
- 1999 Lila Lili as Simon
- 2012 Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire de toi? as Abraham Drucker
- 2014 Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem as Elisha
- 1994 Ana El Awan
- 2025 The 4th Wall as Marwan
- 2005 Zaina: Rider of the Atlas as Omar
- Soon God Will Know His Own
- 2014 The Cut as Krikor
- 2014 Colt 45 as Commander Luc Denard
- 2005 I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed as Mehdi Ben Barka
- 2023 Mémoires de Palestine as Narrator (voice)
- 2015 1915 as Simon
- 2015 Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad as Hovannès Alexandrian
- 2010 Comme une ombre as Vincent
- 2005 S.A.C. : Des hommes dans l'ombre as Cesari
- 2007 New Délire as Gunter (voice)
- 2003 The Legend of Princess Parva as Swami (voice)
- 2008 A World of Ours as L'oncle de Noé (voice)
- 2016 Il était une fois... « Le procès de Viviane Amsalem » as Self
- 2025 Chroniques d'un indic as Lakhdar
- 2008 Minor Revelations
- 1997 J'irai au paradis car l'enfer est ici as Simon
- 2017 Overdrive as Jacomo Morier
- 2017 J'ai tué ma femme as Le patron du café
- 2017 Journey from Greece as Kakourgos
- 2016 Chouf as Le libanais
- 2005 In Your Dreams as Wilson
- 2018 The Sonata as Charles Vernais
- 2016 Scribe as Gerfaut
- 2018 Cyrano, My Love as Ange Fleury
- 2019 Rebels as Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father
- 2019 The Audition as Philippe
- 2019 Someone, Somewhere as Mansour
- 2019 The Swallows of Kabul as Atiq (voice)
- 2019 Ce soir-là et les jours d'après as Karan
- 2002 The Truth About Charlie as Lieutenant Dessalines
- 2008 Le Menteur : La Pièce ! as Lelio
- 2008 L'Affaire Ben Barka as le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur
- 1997 Tempest in a Teapot
- 2007 Rendition as Said Abdel Aziz
- 2013 The Marchers as Le père de Farid
- 2020 Le dernier jour du jeûne
- 2021 Les Damnés de la Commune as Narrateur (voice)
- 1994 The Goldfish as Customer
- 2015 Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger as Narrator
- 2008 Khamsa as Khamsa's Father
- 2008 A Day at the Museum as Gilles Paulin
- 2022 Cop Goes Missing as Tristan
- 2022 Electre des bas-fonds
- Soon Le lièvre
- Soon Playground as The Father
- 1989 La nuit miraculeuse
- 2022 Notre-Dame ( 6 episodes ) as Max
- 2011 Tony's Revenge ( 8 episodes ) as Tony Roucas
- 2012 Kaboul Kitchen ( 36 episodes ) as Colonel Amanullah
- 2015 Malaterra ( 8 episodes ) as Thomas Rotman
- 2017 Playground ( 10 episodes ) as The Father
- 2002 Spooks ( 8 episodes ) as Dariush Bakhshi
- 2009 Pigalle, la nuit ( 8 episodes ) as Nadir Zainoun
- 2020 Wonderland ( 6 episodes ) as Tony
- 2026 Vanished ( 4 episodes ) as Gaspard Drax
- Soon Malin Fors ( 1 episode )
- 2008 House of Saddam ( 1 episode ) as Qais
