Hafsia Herzi


Hafsia Herzi is a French actress and film director of Algerian and Tunisian descent. She is best known for her debut role in the award-winning Franco-Tunisian feature The Secret of the Grain for which she won the award for most promising actress at the César Awards 2008, and the Marcello Mastroianni award, for best emerging actor/actress at the 64th Venice International Film Festival. She is also well known for her role, Curly, in the 2009 film :fr:Le Roi de l'évasion|Le Roi de l'évasion where she stunned audiences by engaging in actual sexual intercourse with French actor :fr:Ludovic Berthillot|Ludovic Berthillot.

Life

Herzi is of Tunisian descent from her father and Algerian from her mother, and is the youngest of a family of four children. After her parents' divorce, her father remarried in Algeria. Her mother lives in Marseille, where Herzi grew up.
On 29 November 2017, a driver with a private car transport company sued Herzi after receiving a series of SMS insults, including "dirty Arab", for events occurring during a trip. She pleaded not guilty as she claimed she used 'dirty Arab' as a tone of ironic meaning, however she has been known for acting hostile against Arabs. On 13 November 2019, she was found guilty of racial insults by the Paris Court of Appeal.

Selected filmography