Emmanuelle Devos

Raised in a Paris suburb by her actor parents, Emmanuelle Devos knew from an early age that she wanted to follow in their footsteps. After leaving school to study drama, she honed her craft under French director Francis Huster, who later gave her a debut role in his 1986 comedy "On a vole Charlie Spencer!," which followed a movie star and her employer during a stay at a luxurious hotel. During this time, Devos befriended a group of French film students, one of whom, director Arnaud Desplechin, would become a lifelong friend and collaborator. Desplechin, regarded as a highly influential filmmaker, would eventually direct Devos in five films, many of which revolved around family and identity crises. In "La vie des morts," Devos portrayed the confused girlfriend of a man dealing with a tragic family loss, and in their most famous film together, 1996's "My Sex Life...Or How I Got Into an Argument," she embodied quiet courage and strength as the long-suffering girlfriend of an aimless philosophy student. She landed her breakthrough role in the 2001 film "Sur mes levres" as a deaf secretary who forms an unlikely bond with a paroled ex-con, directed by her other frequent collaborator, Jacques Audiard. Devos, who is married to actor Gilles Cohen, has also earned rave reviews for her role as a mother dealing with several failed relationships in "Kings & Queen" and as a patient girlfriend roped into a troubled family in the 2008 melodrama "A Christmas Tale."