Leïla Bekhti

Leïla Bekhti (ليلى بختي) is a French-Algerian actress, born on March 6, 1984, in Issy-les-Moulineaux. She notably received the César Award for Most Promising Actress in 2011 for her role in Tout Ce Qui Brille. In 2010, Leïla Bekhti married actor Tahar Rahim, whom she met in 2007 on the set of the film A Prophet. Leïla Bekhti was born into an Algerian family from Sidi Bel Abbès in western Algeria, who settled in the Paris region.

Born in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Leïla Bekhti grew up in Bagneux. She is the youngest of three children. While a high school student, she regularly bought Casting magazine, with the sole intention of having fun looking for ads that might be of interest to her, without taking any action each time they did. After obtaining a literary baccalaureate (with a theater option) from the Maurice-Genevoix high school in Montrouge, she reluctantly enrolled in a university and took an art therapy course there.

[4] She also attended a theater school in Paris for six months, without much regular attendance. While working various odd jobs—including as a saleswoman in a clothing store owned by her brother in Orléans—to pay for her classes, she then enrolled at the Stéphane-Gildas school in Paris, then Bérengère Basty's class at the Art'aire Studio.