Simon Abkarian (born 5 March 1962 in Gonesse) is a French-Armenian film, television and stage actor and playwright. Raised in Lebanon before moving via Los Angeles back to France, he became a member of Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil and won the 2001 Molière Award for Best Actor. He gained wider recognition as Bond villain Alex Dimitrios in Casino Royale (2006) and as painter Arshile Gorky in Atom Egoyan's Ararat, and he also writes and directs his own plays with his company Tera.
Abkarian received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival for his role as General Charles de Gaulle in the feature film De Gaulle.
The two-part historical drama De Gaulle starring Abkarian is coming to cinemas - the first part will be released on November 6, the second on December 4, 2026.
At the Parisian Théâtre des Quartiers d'Ivry, he presented his original production Ménélas rebétiko rapsodie.
He also appeared in the TV series Vanished and Chroniques d'un indic and in the post-production film Le Lièvre.
