Maïwenn

Maïwenn Aurélia Nedjma Le Besco, known mononymously as Maïwenn, is a French actress and filmmaker. Maïwenn starred in several films as a child, then teen, actress—notably as "Elle, as a child" (the child version of the lead role played by Isabelle Adjani) in the 1983 hit film L'été meurtrier (One Deadly Summer). Following her marriage to director Luc Besson and the birth of their daughter in 1993, Maïwenn interrupted her career for several years. During this period, she only appeared in a supporting part in Besson's Léon (1994), in which she was credited as Ouin-Ouin.

She also directed the film's making-of. Perhaps Maïwenn's most internationally-seen film role was her appearance as the alien Diva Plavalaguna in Besson's The Fifth Element (1997). After she and Besson divorced, Maïwenn returned to France. She performed as a stand-up comedian in an autobiographical one-woman-show, and reentered the movie business after several filmmakers saw her comedy routine in Paris.

She appeared in several notable movies, including the horror film Haute Tension (English title: High Tension), in which she starred opposite Cécile de France. By the time the film came out in 2003, she had decided she wanted to try directing. In 2006, Maïwenn wrote and directed her first feature film, Pardonnez-moi, a drama about a dysfunctional family.