Simon Abkarian (born 5 March 1962) is a French-Armenian actor.
Born in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, of Armenian descent, Abkarian spent his childhood in Lebanon. He moved to Los Angeles, where he joined an Armenian theater company managed by Gerald Papazian. He returned to France in 1985, settling in Paris. He took classes at the Acting International school, then he joined Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil.
Abkarian left the Théâtre du Soleil in 1993 and played in 2001 "Beast on the Moon" by Richard Kalinoski, directed by Irina Brook, a play about the life of a survivor of the Genocide of the Armenians, a role which won him critical acclaims and the Molière of the best comedian.
His first roles in cinema were proposed by French filmaker Cédric Klapisch, who asked him to play in several of his movies, notably in "Chacun cherche son chat" ("When the Cat is Away" (1996) and in "Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)" en 2003.
He was featured in Sally Potter's Yes (2004), in which he played the lead role.
Abkarian then played Mehdi Ben Barka in the thriller "J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka" by Serge Le Péron, about the kidnapping and the murder of the leader of the Moroccan opposition. He then played in "Prendre Femme" by Ronit Elkabetz which won him several interpretation prizes. Playing different roles and in different genres, he was featured in the adventure "Zaïna, cavalière de l'Atlas" by Bourlem Guerdjou, in the comedy "Le Démon de midi" by Marie-Pascale Osterriet. He has also appeared in Atom Egoyan's Ararat (2002), he was Albert in Almost Peaceful (2004) by French Director Michel Deville a film about Holocaust survivors, he was featured in "Your Dreams" (2005) by Denis Thybaud. He played the role of villain Alex Dimitrios in the James Bond film, Casino Royale. The character is a Government contractor and arms dealer working against Bond.
He was featured as Sahak in the thriller "Les Mauvais Joueurs" ("The Gamblers") (2007) by Frédéric Balekdjian. He has also been the voice of Ebi in the French version of the animated feature "Persepolis". Abkarian played the role of the eminent Armenian poet Missak Manouchianin in "Army of Crime" (2010) by Robert Guédiguian, a French filmaker based in Marseilles, who is also of Armenian parentage.
He has also played Dariush Bakhshi, the Iranian Special Consul, in the BBC drama Spooks MI-5.
Abkarian is known for his intensity in acting and for his ecclectism in the roles he choses.
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as The Father
as Charles de Gaulle
as Charles de Gaulle
as Gaspard Drax(4 eps)
as Lakhdar
as Marwan
as Narrator (voice)
as Self(1 ep)
as Daniel Prat
as Max(6 eps)
as Saül Birnbaum
as Antoine Marelli
as Tristan
as Anthony
as Müller
as Narrateur (voice)
as Tony(6 eps)
as Philippe
as Mansour
as Atiq (voice)
as Karan
as Self(1 ep)
as Simon Bénéké, Sandra's father
as Charles Vernais
as Ange Fleury
as Kakourgos
as Jacomo Morier
as The Father(10 eps)
as Le patron du café
as Gerfaut
as Le libanais
as Thomas Rotman(8 eps)
as Hovannès Alexandrian
as Narrator
as Simon
as Krikor
as Commander Luc Denard
as Elisha
as L'avocat François Desgrez
as Le père de Farid
as Abraham Drucker
as Detainee on Monitor
as Colonel Amanullah(36 eps)
as Hassan (voice)
as Jimi Weiss
as Milo Garavan
as Tony Roucas(8 eps)
as Vincent
as Le veuf
as Nadir Zainoun(8 eps)
as Merlin
as Missak Manouchian
as Al Barad
as Raoul
as Lelio
as Gilles Paulin
as Khamsa's Father
as Qais(1 ep)
as L'oncle de Noé (voice)
as Eliyau
as le général Oufkir, ministre marocain de l'intérieur
as Said Abdel Aziz
as Gunter (voice)
as Marjane's Father (voice)
as Pierre
as Alex Dimitrios
as Sam
as Sarkis Arabian
as Cesari
as Mehdi Ben Barka
as Omar
as He
as Julien Cestac
as Sahak
as Wilson
as Eliyahoo
as Swami (voice)
as Albert
as Aram
as Lieutenant Dessalines
as Arshile Gorky
as Dariush Bakhshi(8 eps)
as Simon
as Customer
as Carlos
as Customer
