Nadia Benzakour

Biography

Born and raised in Paris, Nadia Benzakour is an international French actress with North African roots, known for her work in Hollywood and international productions. Her ability to work in several languages including French, English, Spanish, and Arabic led her to build an international career. Recently she had to learn Kurdish for one of the leading characters in the second season of No Man's Land. Nadia is an international actress capable of playing lead roles in big-budget productions, TV productions, and Auteur films. She worked on French productions and international ones: the big-budget French production, "Zodi et Tehu, Frères du désert" / "Princes of the Desert" directed by Eric Barbier, and shared the lead with Alexandra Lamy and Youssef Hajdi on this French adventure movie. She interpreted the historical figure Poppea in the feature film "Seneca" directed by Robert Scwhentke, as part of an ensemble cast composed of John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker, Geraldine Chaplin, Andrew Koji, and Louis Hoffman. Before, she was seen in the Cannes Film Festival sensation, "Sofia", the tv productions "The Tyrant", "Deep State" with Mark Strong, "Killing Jesus", "Open Desert", the History Channel TV Series "the Colosseum", " Covenant" directed by David Batty to name a few. Nadia Benzakour received her acting training in L.A., New York City and Paris. She studied at the prestigious Richard Lawson Studio in Los Angeles and Mary T.Boyer in New York City. In France, she studied Masks and Burlesque at the eminent Jacques Lecoq School. Nadia Benzakour studied also at "Les Enfants Terribles". This theater school is known for having as its members, the French superstar, Lea Seydoux. Nadia was also part of Nicolas Liautard's Theater company, based in Paris between 2005 and 2006 in la Scène Watteau. Nadia as a soprano, sang at the McDonald's Gospel Choir leading Cissy Houston (Witney Houston's mother) in New York City, and remains attached to Jazz standards as a singer. Very much interested in physicality, she learned Belly Dancing and Wing Shun with Mohamed Targuisti, the former World Champion in Martial Arts (JuJi Tsu), a Kung Fu expert trained at the Shaolin temple.