Omar Sy
Birthdate: Jan 20, 1978
Birthplace: Trappes, Yvelines, France
Omar Sy is a rarity--a highly popular French comedy actor who has been embraced by Hollywood. After four years of comedy appearances on radio and television, as well as with his long-running comic partner, Fred Testot, Sy broke into French cinema in a string of small roles from 2000 to 2006.
He landed the first of several major roles in Éric Toledano’s and Olivier Nakache’s movies, starting with Nos jours heureux/Those Happy Days (2006), and continuing later with Toledano’s and Nakache’s Tellement proches/So Close (2009); the huge hit comedy, Intouchables (2011), with François Cluzet (both actors winning best actor César Awards), and grossing a spectacular $426.6 million on a $10.8 million budget.
He also played the title role in the comedy-drama, Samba (2014), co-starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tahar Rahim, and Izia Higelin, and earning a good $39 million gross. Cy then collaborated with such major French filmmakers as Jean-Pierre Jeunet (for Micmacs (2009)), Luc Besson (for Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2009)), Olivier Dahan (for Les seigneurs (2012)), and Michel Gondry (for L’ecume des jours/Mood Indigo (2013), with Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou).
Sy’s first Hollywood role came with a small role in the MCU sequel, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), directed by Joe Johnston, followed four years later with the Henrik Ruben Genz-directed thriller, Good People (2014), co-starring James Franco, Kate Hudson, and Tom Wilkinson, and a small role in director-producer Bryan Singer’s X-Men sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).
Omar Sy voiced the lead role in the award-winning animated 3-D French fantasy, Mune, la gardien de la lune (2014), with Higelin, and then shifted in a significant way to Hollywood-produced movies (while still starring in French movies), starting with a major supporting role in co-writer/director Colin Trevorrow’s $1.6-billion-grossing Jurassic World (2015), with Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, BD Wong, and Irrfan Khan. Sy co-starred with Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Daniel Brühl, Alicia Vikander, Lily James, Uma Thurman, and Emma Thompson in director-producer John Wells’ drama, Burnt (2015).
Sy was nominated for the best actor César Award for his lead performance in the historic biopic, Chocolat (2016), co-written and directed by Roschdy Zem, and then voiced French-dubbed voices for The Angry Birds Movie (2016), Norm of the North (2016), and Sahara (2017), and also did English-language voicing for Michael Bay’s Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) and the animated family movie, Arctic Dogs (2019).
Omar Sy continued his run as a major French big-screen star with co-writer/director Hugo Gelin’s comedy-drama, Demain tout commence/Two Is a Family (2016), earning a good $33 million domestically. Sy’s biggest high-profile role to date arrived with the Ron Howard-directed version of Dan Brown’s thriller, Inferno (2016), starring Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, and Ben Foster, and garnering a $220 million worldwide gross for Columbia/Sony Pictures.
Sy continued his run as a French leading man (and comic) by starring in the French cop comedy, Le Flic de Belleville (2018), directed by Rachid Bouchareb and co-written by Bouchareb, Marion Doussot, and Larry Gross. Omar Sy co-starred with Harrison Ford in the 20th Century Fox-produced (with producer James Mangold) The Call of the Wild (2020), adapted from Jack London’s classic novel by writer Michael Green and director Chris Sanders, but losing money with a weak $111 million gross.
After starring in director Michel Hazanavicius’s Le prince oublié (2020), Sy starred with Virginie Efira in Anne Fontaine’s drama, Police/Night Shift (2020), premiering at the Berlin Film Festival. Sy did the French dub of the lead character, Joe (played by Jamie Foxx in the English original), in Pixar/Disney’s animated Soul (2020), and then starred in and produced the French-Senegalese war drama, Tirailleurs/Father & Soldier (2022), directed, co-written, and co-produced by Mathieu Vadepied and selected as opening film in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard competition.
Sy reunited with director/co-writer Colin Trevorrow for the sequel, Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and with cast mates Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Mamoudou Athie, and BD Wong, which grossed a worldwide total of just over $1 billion.
Omar Sy continued his Hollywood movie string in the pivotal role of Barabbas in filmmaker Jeymes Samuel’s second feature, The Book of Clarence (2024), with LaKeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Anna Diop, David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard, Teyana Taylor, Michael Ward, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Nicholas Pinnock (as Jesus), and released by TriStar/Sony Pictures Releasing after premiering at the London film festival. Sy co-starred with star/producer Kerry Washington in Lionsgate’s thriller, Shadow Force (date to be announced), directed and co-written by Joe Carnahan, and with Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Method Man, and Mark Strong.
Sy shifted to French cinema for writer-director Joann Sfar’s drama, Le chat du rabbin (date to be announced) with Christian Clavier; as well as the Anne Le Ny-directed drama, Histoire d’Un Mariage/Out of Control (2024), co-starring Vanessa Paradis and Jose Garcia. Omar Sy starred in writer-director Brandt Andersen’s Syria-based drama, The Strangers’ Case (date to be announced), with Angeliki Papoulia and Yasmine Al Massri.
Personal Details
Omar Sy was born in the Paris suburb of Trappes, France, and was raised by a Mauritanian-born mother, Diaratou (house cleaner), and a Senegalese-born father, Demba (auto parts factory worker). Sy has older brothers. Sy’s family visited their former Senegal home and relatives every other summer. Sy attended public schools and graduated from his high school in Trappes, but instead of attending an institution of higher education, Sy pursued a comedy performing career in Paris, starting in radio and then television. Sy has been married to non-profit activist and organic foods entrepreneur Hélène Sy since 2007, after living together since 1997; the couple has four children and moved from Paris to Los Angeles in 2012. Sy’s height is 6’ ¾ ”.
Filmography
actor
Previous (10)
- 2024 | The Book of ClarenceasBarabbas
The Book of Clarence
Struggling to find a better life, Clarence is captivated by the power of the rising Messiah and soon risks everything to carve a path to a divine existence.
- 2022 | Jurassic World DominionasBarry Sembène
Jurassic World Dominion
Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, Biosyn operatives attempt to track down Maisie Lockwood, while Dr Ellie Sattler investigates a genetically engineered swarm of giant insects.
- 2020 | Night ShiftasAristide
Night Shift
Three officers are tasked with escorting an illegal immigrant to Charles de Gaulle airport, where he will be forced onto a plane and sent back to his homeland. But when they find out about the truth, they have to make a difficult ...
- 2020 |
- 2019 | Arctic DogsasLeopold
Arctic Dogs
An Arctic fox works in the mailroom of a package delivery service, but wants to be doing the deliveries.
- 2017 | Transformers: The Last Knight
Transformers: The Last Knight
A deadly threat from Earth's history reappears and a hunt for a lost artifact takes place between Autobots and Decepticons, while Optimus Prime encounters his creator in space.
- 2016 |
- 2015 |
- 2015 | Jurassic WorldasBarry
Jurassic World
A new theme park, built on the original site of Jurassic Park, creates a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, which escapes containment and goes on a killing spree.
- 2014 | X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.
Some Facts About Omar Sy
Origins: Omar Sy’s family roots are with the largely nomadic pastoral Fulani people, numbering between 25 and 40 million and living in West Africa, the Sahara and Sahel deserts as well as the northern areas of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, and Sudan’s Red Sea coastal zone, with significant minorities in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Mauritania, the latter two of which are the birthplaces of, respectively, his mother and father.
Multilingual: Sy grew up speaking French in public and in school, the Fula language of Pulaar (his parents’ native tongue) at home, and also English.
Opening Doors: Omar Sy commented in an interview that “people only look at you and say, ‘You are Black and you are from the banlieue (French public housing),’ and all the doors are closed. I had the desire to be something else. If I see a door that is a little open, I will find a way to get through.”
