Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 August 1967 in Paris) is a French actor, director, screenwriter, and is considered one of contemporary France's top young film talents. He is the son of director Peter Kassovitz, a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, and a Roman Catholic French mother. As a filmmaker, Kassovitz has a number of artistic and commercial successes under his belt. He wrote and directed La Haine (1995), a hugely successful film in France and internationally which won the Cesar Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He later directed Les Rivières Pourpres (2000), a police detective thriller starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, another massive commercial success in France, and Gothika (2003), a fantasy thriller, with Halle Berry and Penélope Cruz.
His next project will be based on the Maurice Dantec novel "Babylon Babies".
As an actor, Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. Among many other credits, he also had small roles in La Haine (which he also directed), Birthday Girl, Cafe Au Lait and The Fifth Element. He also played one of the main roles in Amen (2003) by Costa-Gavras and a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg's controversial 2005 film Munich, alongside Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush.
He is married to actress Julie Mauduech, whom he directed and acted alongside with in his 1993 film Métisse.
Munich (2005)
