Aurélien Recoing

Aurélien Recoing (born 5 May 1958) is a French actor and stage director. Aurélien Recoing is the son of Alain Recoing (puppeteer), and the brother of Éloi Recoing (director and translator), Blaise Recoing (actor and musician), and David Recoing (pianist, composer). Born in Paris on May 5, 1958, Aurélien Recoing began training to be an actor in 1974 at Cours Florent, and studied at Quartier d'Ivry.

In 1977, the actor-in-training, who spoke fluent English and a little Russian, joined the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris, where he studied under Jean-Pierre Miquel and Antoine Vitez. He has appeared in more than 30 plays and has directed stage performances of works by Thomas Bernhard, Fernando Pessoa and Paul Claudel. He was awarded the Prix Gérard Philipe in 1989.

In 1980, Aurélien Recoing took his first steps into the world of cinema, in Exploits of a Young Don Juan. Finding art-house cinema appealing to him, he worked with Philippe Garrel on Emergency Kisses (Les baisers de secours), and with Laurence Ferreira Barbosa on Modern Life. The actor rose to fame in 2001 thanks to Laurent Cantet's Time Out (L'Emploi du Temps), in which he plays a man who invents a false life to avoid having to tell his friends and family that he has been fired from his job.