Axelle Laffont

Axelle Laffont is a French comedienne, the daughter of Patrice Laffont, the long-running host of the 1990s French TV game show "Fort Boyard." Laffont first appeared on French television with a tiny role in the small-screen adaptation of Honoré de Balzac's "La femme abandonnée" (1992), directed by Edouard Molinaro, helmer of the cult comedy "La cage aux folles" (1978). Laffont reunited with Molinaro on his TV movie version of Henry James' "What Maisie Knew" (1995), and made her cinematic debut in Molinaro's next production, a big-screen adaptation of Sacha Guitry's play "Beaumarchais the Scoundrel" (1996). She next appeared in Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's "AIDS musical" "Jeanne and the Perfect Guy" (1998), before reuniting with Molinaro for another Henry James adaptation, "Watch and Ward." Laffont appeared in increasingly prominent roles in a run of French commercial comedies -- "The Race" (2002), "Shooting Stars" (2002) and "A Great Little Business" (2003) -- and boasted a starring role in the latter, opposite Denis Podalydés and Clovis Cornillac. In addition to staging her successful one-woman show, "One Meuf Show," on the Paris stage, Laffont has also had key roles in the films "Cavalcade" (2005) and "I Hate My Best Friends' Kids" (2007), and starred in the TV movie "Mariage surprise" (2007).