Florence Foresti

Florence Foresti (born 8 November 1973 in Vénissieux) is a French comedian and actress.

Following her high school studies in literature, theatre and dramatic expression at Saint-Just de Lyon, Florence Foresti entered a school for cinematography at Lyon. After her studies, she appeared in the French television show Thalassa.

At 20, Florence enrolled in a course in classical theatre at Lyon, which she quit after just two days. She had a few other jobs, including working for EDF in Lyon, before finally becoming a computer graphics artist. But she didn't give up on her artistic ambitions, and in 1998 made her début at the café-théâtre Le nOmbril du mOnde ("The navel of the world"), as part of an all woman trio Les Taupes Models (a pun between French "Model Moles" and English "Top Models") with Céline Ianucci and Cécile Giroud, while simultaneously working as a computer graphics artist. The trio was noticed while touring and Anne Roumanoff proposed to make the act the first part of her show. Florence Foresti's career was launched.

In 2001 her first one-woman show, Manquerait plus qu'elle soit drôle ("The only thing missing is that she be funny") won the Jury prize at the Antibes festival. Her style bears comparison with that of Muriel Robin and Sylvie Joly, as well as with some of the 'attitude' and voices of Dieudonné M'bala M'bala and Élie Semoun. She appeared in the Stéphane Bern programme 20h 10 pétantes, and then on Laurent Ruquier's On a tout essayé, playing zany characters.