Nora Hamzawi

Nora Hamzawi (born April 29, 1983) is a French comedian, actress, writer, and columnist. Emerging from the stand-up scene in the late 2000s, she first gained recognition through French radio and television before establishing herself as a stage performer and a regular presence in French auteur cinema. She has published several books, and in 2026 launched the French-language podcast En apparence, focused on body image and social norms. She is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Hamzawi was born in Cannes and grew up in Paris, in a family of Syrian origin. After completing her baccalauréat, she briefly enrolled in law school before leaving, then studied communication at Paris Descartes University and later at CELSA, while training in acting at Cours Florent and the Atelier Fanny Vallon. She began performing stand-up in 2009 with her first one-woman show and was noticed the same year at the Just for Laughs festival in Nantes. Between 2011 and 2012, she appeared on On n'demande qu'à en rire, hosted by Laurent Ruquier on France 2.

From 2013 to 2015, she performed the segment Oh-Oh de Nora as part of Le Before du Grand Journal on Canal+, later becoming a regular columnist on Le Grand Journal. In 2016, she joined the talk show Quotidien on TMC, hosted by Yann Barthès. Alongside stand-up, she has built a parallel acting career, collaborating several times with Olivier Assayas, notably in Doubles vies (2018), for which she received the Swann d'Or for Best Female Revelation at the Cabourg Film Festival, and appearing in his television series Irma Vep in 2022. Her published books include 30 ans (10 ans de thérapie) (2016) and 35 ans (dont 15 avant Internet) (2021).