Biography
One of only three women to be awarded the coveted Palme d'Or, Léa Seydoux's rise to Cannes festival favorite began when she secured a Most Promising Actress Cesar Award nomination for her portrayal of The Princess Of Clevès in "La Belle Personne" (2008). Seydoux then began to balance equally acclaimed roles in French films "Lourdes" (2009), "Belle Épine" (2010) and "Farewell, My Queen" (2012) with minor parts in Hollywood fare such as "Robin Hood" (2010) and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011) before landing the co-lead of blue-haired art student Emma in the controversial romantic drama "Blue Is The Warmest Colour" (2013). Born in the 16th district of Paris in July 1985, Seydoux grew up in a prominent family steeped in the history of European cinema. Her grandfather, Jerome Seydoux, was chairman of Pathé; her great uncle, Nicolas Seydoux, was chairman of the Gaumont Film Company and the Vice President of Arte France; her stepmother was model-turned-documentary filmmaker Farida Khelfa. However, despite her showbiz background, Seydoux only began to take a serious interest in acting after graduating from high school when she took a year's theatre course at Les Enfants Terribles. Following her debut in teenage dance flick "Mes Copines" (2006), Seydoux then honed her talents with supporting roles in "Une Vieille Maîtresse" ("The Last Mistress") (2007) and "De La Guerre" ("On War") (2008) before achieving her breakthrough when Christophe Honoré cast her as Junie de Chartres in historical drama "La Belle Personne" ("The Beautiful Person") (2008). Seydoux went onto receive praise for her performance in the Vienna Prize-winning "Lourdes" (2009) and soon began to attract the attention of several major Hollywood directors, landing small parts in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" (2009), Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" (2010) and Woody Allen's "Midnight In Paris" (2011). Seydoux continued to flirt with the international mainstream by appearing as trained assassin Sabine Moreau in "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011), but still focused most of her attention on the European film scene, picking up another Cesar Award nomination for her lead performance as Marie Antoinette's servant in "Farewell, My Queen" (2012) and starring in the Alps-based Swiss tragi-comedy "Sister" (2012). Seydoux then became the toast of the French film industry when she took on the role of Emma in the sexually explicit three-hour epic "Blue Is the Warmest Colour," later winning the Palme d'Or alongside director Abdellatif Kechiche and co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos. That international breakthrough was followed by supporting roles in Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014) and fashion world biopic "Saint Laurent" (2014), as well as the lead role of Belle in Christophe Gans' adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast" (2014). A starring role in another literary adaptation, "Diary of a Chambermaid" (2015) was followed by the high-profile part of Dr. Madeleine Swann in the James Bond hit "Spectre" (2015)
