Simon Abkarian
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1962-03-05 (63 years old)
Place of Birth
Gonesse, Val d'Oise, France
Simon Abkarian
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 .
Acting
De Gaulle – Partie 1 : La France Libre
as Charles De Gaulle
De Gaulle – Partie 2
as Charles De Gaulle
Playground
as The Father
Indic
as Lakhdar
(2025)
The 4th Wall
as Marwan
(2025)
(2023)
Mémoires de Palestine
as Narrator (voice)
(2022)
Restless
as Antoine Marelli
(2022)
Overdose
as Daniel Prat
(2022)
Cop Goes Missing
as Tristan
(2022)
The Way to Happiness
as Saül Birnbaum
(2022)
(2021)
Off-Season
as Anthony
(2021)
Permis de construire
as Müller
(2021)
The Damned of the Paris Commune
as Narrateur (voice)
(2021)
(2020)
(2019)
Someone, Somewhere
as Mansour
(2019)
The Swallows of Kabul
as Atiq (voice)
(2019)
Rebels
as Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father
(2019)
The Audition
as Philippe
(2019)
Ce soir-là et les jours d'après
as Karan
(2018)
Cyrano, My Love
as Ange Fleury
(2018)
The Sonata
as Charles Vernais
(2017)
Overdrive
as Jacomo Morier
(2017)
Journey from Greece
as Kakourgos
(2017)
J'ai tué ma femme
as Le patron du café
(2016)
Scribe
as Gerfaut
(2016)
Chouf
as Le libanais
(2016)
(2015)
1915
as Simon
(2015)
Don't Tell Me the Boy Was Mad
as Hovannès Alexandrian
(2015)
Tehlirian on Trial: Armenia's Avenger
as Narrator
(2014)
Colt 45
as Commander Luc Denard
(2014)
The Cut
as Krikor
(2014)
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
as Elisha
(2013)
Angelique
as L'avocat François Desgrez
(2013)
The Marchers
as Le père de Farid
(2012)
Zarafa
as Hassan (voice)
(2012)
Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire de toi?
as Abraham Drucker
(2011)
Force
as Jimi Weiss
(2011)
Les Amants naufragés
as Milo Garavan
(2010)
Turk's Head
as Le veuf
(2010)
Comme une ombre
as Vincent
(2009)
Army of Crime
as Missak Manouchian
(2009)
Rage
as Merlin
(2008)
Secrets of State
as Al Barad
(2008)
The Seven Days
as Eliyau
(2008)
Khamsa
as Khamsa's Father
(2008)
A Day at the Museum
as Gilles Paulin
(2008)
L'Affaire Ben Barka
as le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur
(2008)
The Wedding Song
as Raoul
(2008)
(2008)
A World of Ours
as L'oncle de Noé (voice)
(2008)
Le Menteur : La Pièce !
as Lelio
(2007)
Persepolis
as Marjane's Father (voice)
(2007)
Rendition
as Said Abdel Aziz
(2007)
Trivial
as Pierre
(2007)
New Délire
as Gunter (voice)
(2006)
Casino Royale
as Alex Dimitrios
(2006)
The Snake
as Sam
(2006)
Armenia
as Sarkis Arabian
(2005)
In Your Dreams
as Wilson
(2005)
Yes
as He
(2005)
Zaina: Rider of the Atlas
as Omar
(2005)
I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed
as Mehdi Ben Barka
(2005)
Les mauvais joueurs
as Sahak
(2005)
S.A.C. : Des hommes dans l'ombre
as Cesari
(2005)
The Demon Stirs
as Julien Cestac
(2004)
To Take A Wife
as Eliyahoo
(2003)
(2003)
The Legend of Princess Parva
as Swami (voice)
(2002)
Ararat
as Arshile Gorky
(2002)
The Truth About Charlie
as Lieutenant Dessalines
(2002)
Aram
as Aram
(2002)
Almost Peaceful
as Albert
(1999)
Lila Lili
as Simon
(1997)
(1997)
The Silence of Rak
as Customer
(1997)
(1996)
When the Cat's Away
as Carlos
(1994)
Le Poisson rouge
as Customer
(1994)
Crew
(2022)
Electre des bas-fonds
Scenario Writer
(2020)
Le dernier jour du jeûne
Writer
(1995)
Dead Man Walking
Thanks