Smaïn (born Smaïn Fairouze, on January 3, 1958 in Constantine, Algeria) is a French comedian, humorist, writer, actor and director of Algerian descent.

Born in 1958 in Constantine, Algeria, to an unknown father and mother, Smaïn Fairouze was taken in by the children's ward of the civil hospital. In 1960, brought back to France by an administrative assistant, he joined his foster family. His adoptive father, a street sweeper at the Régie immobilière de la ville de Paris, was Algerian and his adoptive mother, a cleaning lady, was Moroccan. He attended the Notre-Dame school in Saint-Mandé and then the Saint-Michel high school in St Mandé. During his childhood, he practiced choral singing for many years.

Smaïn, to break into the world of show business, counted on the limitless support of his adoptive parents: «Of modest origins, they looked with suspicion at the world of artists. They constantly told me that there are many called and few chosen... But my desire quickly got the better of their advice! Unfortunately, they died too early to be able to benefit from my success. But I hope they would have been proud of it!».

Smaïn began with a long career in café-théâtre in the 1980s, performing in small Parisian cabarets. Later, he met Philippe Bouvard who offered him a place in his Théâtre de Bouvard. It was there that he expanded his circle of friends by meeting Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan, Pascal Légitimus and Seymour Brussel. With these four companions, he formed a small comedy group, Les Cinq, which toured for a few years.

Smaïn ended up choosing the solo show. Little by little, with the help of his pianist Alain Bernard, he found success and performed in shows over the years: English beur in 1986 broadcast on 18 August (version filmed at the International Festival of Actors' Performance of June 1987) on La Cinq, T'en veux? in 1989, and Comme ça se prononce in 1996, a show for which he won the Molière for best Indonesian, a Victoire de la musique as well as a Grand Prix Sacem. At the same time, Smaïn was offered more and more roles in the cinema, notably in L'Œil au beur(re) noir, a film which received the César for best first film in 1988.

He also participated in several shows by Enfoirés in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998.

In 2008, he recorded with the Orchestre de la Suisse romande, Le Carnaval des animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns, for which he wrote the libretto. This will be followed by a collaboration with the Pau Pays de Béarn Orchestra who commissioned several musical tales for orchestra, Rayane and the Maestro, The Disappeared of the page 41 and most recently The Fabulous Journey of the Traveling Music Stand.

In 2009, he was part of the jury of the show France has incredible talent, during the fourth season, replacing Patrick Dupond, and collaborates with Michel Legrand on the production of his album Délit de fa dièse.

In 2012, Smaïn returned to the stage of the Théâtre Rive Gauche in the play Réactions en chaîne, which he performed from January to March. ...

Source: Article "Smaïn" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.