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Born Daniel Farid Hamidou, he is known by his stage name of Dany Boon (. He is an actor, director, screenwriter, and a French producer, born on June 26, 1966 in north Armentières, France.

Starting out as a comedian during the 1990’s, he was recognized in 2008 as a successful actor and director with the popular comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis. Since then he has been involved with the popular films as screenwriter and/ or director: Nothing to Declare (2011), Supercondriaque (2014), Raid Dingue (2017), The Ch’tite Family (2018).

Early Life

Daniel Farid Hamidou comes from a middle class family in northern France. His father, Ahmed Hamidou, was born in 1930 in Issers, Algeria, and died in Lille, France in 1992. He was a boxer and a chauffeur. His mother, Danièle Ducatel, is from northern France. A Catholic, she was a stay-at-home mother.

He studied graphic arts at the School of Arts Saint-Luc de Tournai in Belgium.

Career

Dany Boon arrived in Paris in 1989, where he was a mime in the streets for a living while appearing frequently on open mic nights at places like the Treviso theatre. He borrowed his stage name from a hero in the American television series ‘Daniel Boone,’ which was about an American trapper.

He acted in many one-man-shows.

Boon is also a musician: He has done a version of “Piensa en mí” (Think of me). He also writes his own music, for example  ''Le Blues du 'tiot poulet. (The Chicken Blues).''

After small roles in the cinema during the 1900’s, he landed a role in the 1998 satire, Bimboland directed by Ariel Zeitoun. Boon is deeply attached to his native region, Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In 2003, he made a whole show in the local dialect of ch'ti, also known as Picard. Despite the use of dialectal language, 600,000 copies of the DVD (which included French subtitles) were sold. No previous DVD featuring a one-man show had sold as well in France. In 2004, he was part of the main cast in Pédale Dure directed by Gabriel Aghion, a critical and commercial flop. He was then offered several roles in movies, notably in the film Joyeux Noël that made it on the international scene in 2005.

In February 2008, he acted and directed a movie titled Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis), which was well received by the public and was a big success in France and in other countries. This comedy based on prejudices held about the region, went on to break French box office records. Two weeks after its release, the film had already been seen by five million people. After its fourth week, the figure had risen to 15 million, and by 11 April, the film had surpassed the viewing audience of La Grande Vadrouille, having been watched by more than 17.4 million people. He was the highest-paid actor in European film history, netting 26 million Euro (c. 33 million dollars). He was the president of the 40th César Awards ceremony in 2015. Dany Boon was on the council of directors of the Pathé production company and has produced several films as actor, co-producer, screenwriter, or director. Boon had several production companies, including 26 DB Productions, in Los Angeles, California. They produce and distribute films and TV content.

Boon was also directed by well-known French filmmakers such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet in the 2009 movie titled Micmacs ; Danièle Thompson in 2009 Change of Plans ; A Perfect Plan 2012 film directed by Pascal Chaumeil, Julie Delpy’s movie Lolo (2015) and Yvan Attal in 2016 film The Jews.

Raid Dingue was a 2016 comedy that was a big success with the viewers but failed to convince film critics. He was both screenwriter and director on this movie, and also starred in it. For this film Boon received the first  César du public in the history of French cinema: this new award is given to the French film with the biggest box office of the year. After Raid Dingue, Boon did his sixth movie, (La Ch’tite Famille) Family is Family. It came out in 2018, the 10 year anniversary of Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis.

In 2016 Boon starred in a film about anti-semitism in France, ''The Jews. In 2018,  his Netflix show, Des-hauts-de-France premiered on Netflix. Boon voices the character of Olaf in the French dubbings of the Disney movies "Frozen," "Frozen 2," and "The Adventures of Olaf " .''

He has four sons and a daughter from three different unions. With his first wife, he had Mehdi, his eldest son, born in 1997. With his second wife, Judith Godrèche, he had Noé, born on 4 September 1999. With his third wife, Yaël Harris, for whom he converted to Judaism in 2002, he had Eytan, born 23 June 2005; Elia, born 20 December 2006 and Sarah, born 1 March 2010.