Omar Sy (born 20 January 1978) is a French film actor, best known for his duo with Fred Testot, Omar et Fred, and for his role in The Intouchables, written and directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, which became the second highest grossing French film of all time in the French box office. He appeared on Fort Boyard in 2006. He received the César Award for Best Actor on 24 February 2012 for his role in The Intouchables and in doing so also became the first black actor to win the honorary French award. The role also earned him a nomination for a Satellite Award for Best Actor.Sy was born in Trappes, France. His father is Senegalese, and worked in a factory, and his mother is from Mauritania, and was a cleaning woman. He is Muslim.
I'm definitely more at ease with comedy - that's where I started out - and so it's my first love, so to speak, and I have more of a sensibility for it and more familiar with it. Having said that, I also want to be open to everything else.
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I began in radio in 1997 on a radio show hosted by a now very famous comic, Jamel Debbouze. I would fake call listeners.
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I really like to kid around, and it's my own way of concentrating. In order for me to be able to feel better and concentrate, I need everybody else around me to be relaxed.
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People only look at you and say, 'You are black and you are from the banlieue,' 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.
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Nothing in my younger life could have told me I would have needed to know how to speak English.
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When I was a boy, my older brothers listened to Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool and the Gang. When I would try to get into their room, they would close the door and say, 'You can't hear that. It's not for a child!' Now, I can listen to it and enjoy it.
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When I was young, a lot of things were closed off to me. I was always told, 'Don't do this, you can't do that' - instead of stopping me, it made me think, 'I can do that, I must do that.'
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I never predicted that I'd be a comedian, but it was something that came so naturally to me. I just felt good doing it.
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I understood from a very young age that school was important and that my parents were making great sacrifices for me. Every morning I saw my father get up and go to a job that he didn't really like. They came to France for the same reasons all immigrants move to another country - so their kids could have a better way of life.
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(on emerging from the working-class suburbs of Paris) There are two Frances that exist side by side. For me, it was only when I started to work that I saw the other France, that I heard other ways of speaking. We knew it existed. But we didn't ever see it.
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Fact
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His father is from Senegal and his mother is from Mauritania.
$850,000
