Sami (Saeed) Nasseri is a French actor and producer.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on July 2, 1961 in Paris, France.
His mother, Jacqueline, was a Frenchwoman from Normandy, and his father, Jilali, was an Algerian who had emigrated to France at one time. The future actor grew up in a large family – he was one of six children.
He left school at the age of 16.
Career
For some time, Nasseri was interrupted by odd jobs.
From the age of 18, he began to use drugs, and two years later he got into a traffic accident (accident), after which a characteristic scar remained on his face. In particular, he had problems with the law: in 1984, he was sentenced to five years in prison for robbery, of which he served four.
After his release, he tried to start a stage career, but at that time he did not receive recognition. During this period, he changed his name Said to Sami.
He received his first role in the film “Rai”, which was positively appreciated by critics.
A real breakthrough in his film career occurred after meeting director Luc Besson: first he played a cameo role in the film “Leon”, and later played the main role of a young taxi driver in the film “Taxi”. The success of the latter led to the filming of sequels, in which Nasseri was also involved.
In 2006, for his role in the film “Patriots”, he received the award for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.
Despite his success in his acting career, since the 2000s, Nasseri has regularly been in trouble with the law. He was repeatedly brought to court for various offenses. He was last released in June 2009.
In 2010, he wrote a book dedicated to his own life and career as an actor.
In 2017, Nasseri visited the annexed Crimea on a flight from Moscow after being invited by the so-called “Commission on Human Rights in Places of Detention”. After that, it was entered into the database of the Myrotvorets website.
