Omar Synote (born 20 January 1978 in Trappes) is a French actor and comedian of Mauritanian and Senegalese descent.
He gained attention thanks to his comedy duo with Fred Testot, "Omar & Fred", in the Sketch Comedy series S.A.V. (Service Après-Vente) des émissions (literally translated as TV programs Customer Service) on the TV channel Canal+ between 2005 and 2012. He skyrocketed to national superstardom in 2011 with his role in Intouchables, which went on to become the second most successful French film ever at the French box office note and the third most successful film overall at that note .
He won a César Award for Best Actor in 2012 for his role in Intouchables, the first actor of sub-Saharan African descent at that. He has become familiar to international audiences with his roles in films such as X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jurassic World, Inferno, and even moreso with the Netflix series Lupin where he has the leading role.
Selected Filmography:
Films:
- La Tour Montparnasse infernale (2001) as a the taxi driver
- Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002) as the painter (Deleted Role)
- Micmacs (2009) as Remington
- Intouchables (2011) as Driss
- Mood Indigo (2013) as Nicolas
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) as Bishop
- Samba (2014) as Samba Cissé
- Mune: Guardian of the Moon (2014) as Sohone (voice)
- Jurassic Park as Barry
- Jurassic World (2015)
- Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
- Chocolat (2016) as Rafael "Chocolat" Padilla
- Inferno (2016) as Christophe Bouchard
- Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) as Hot Rod
- Knock (2017) as Doctor Knock
- Belleville Cop (2018) note
- The Wolf's Call (2019) as D'Orsy
- Le Prince oublié (2020) as Djibi
- The Call of the Wild (2020) as Perrault
- The Takedown (2022) as Ousmane Diakite
- Father & Soldier (2023) as Bakary Diallo. He is also credited as one of the producers.
- The Book of Clarence (2024) as Barrabas
Live Action TV:
- Groland (2003), sketch "Integration" as Samba Bongo
- Service après-vente des émissions (2005—2012) as Omar / Doudou / Saïd / various other roles
- Lupin (2021—) as Assane Diop
French Dubs:
- Brother Bear (2004) as one of the rams
- Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2009) as Snow
- The Angry Birds Movie (2016) as Red
- Norm of the North (2016) as Norm
- Soul (2020) as Joe Gardner
- Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) as Mr. Perkins
Associated Tropes:
- Actor-Inspired Element: Sy was approached by Netflix and Gaumont to build a series based around him. When asked what character he wanted to play, he chose Arsène Lupin, because he viewed the Gentleman Thief as a "French James Bond".
- Character Catchphrase: One of the many characters he played in the Service après-vente des émissions comedy skits was a shirtless Camp Gay man with a Domino Mask frequently asking Fred Testot "Ben alors, tu viens plus aux soirées?" ("Now what, you don't come to the parties (read: orgies) anymore?").
- An Immigrant's Tale: Something of a typecasting for him.
- Played for Laughs in the "Integration" sketch from the Canal+ News Parody show Groland, where he played a cheerful African immigrant named Samba Bongo, who has to "make efforts to integrate" in Grolandian (read: French) society. By "integrate", it means he has to stop being a Nice Guy and ditch his boubou (West African robe). The next day, he puts a suit on and becomes a Grade-A jerkass, and his equally jerkass neighbor who had no respect for him before fully approves of the change, noting how fast he has "integrated".
- Played for Drama in Samba, in which Charlotte Gainsbourg carries the White Man's Burden.
- Played for drama again in Chocolat, where he plays the real-life clown Rafael "Chocolat", a black Cuban artist who set out to play a wider range of roles than what was possible for a black immigrant in France at the onset of the 20th century.
- It's also part of Assane Diop's Backstory in Lupin.
- Learned English from Watching Television: Claims to have done this with Keeping Up with the Kardashians after he relocated to Los Angeles.
- Production Posse: He's appeared in a number of movies helmed by the directing team of Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano, with Intouchables being the most notable and successful by far.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Is typically the red when he's part of an Action Duo.
- Scary Black Man: Given his large stature he can invoke this but he usually plays loveable characters that can nonetheless be intimidating, whether or not it's intentional.
- Signature Laugh: He has a very loud, booming laugh which is instantly recognizable to French audiences. To hear several examples of it, skip 37 seconds into this video.
- Star-Making Role: In France, as well as much of Europe, it was Intouchables (although the Sketch Comedy show Service Après-Vente des émissions had made him known to Canal+ viewers in France beforehand). He then decided to move to Los Angeles, and played a number of supporting roles in big-budget Hollywood films. Ironically it's been a (Netflix-produced) French television series that made him a big name stateside in the end. Predictably, this also led to English-language news outlets referring to him as a "breakout star"...even though by that point he had been one of France's most well-known and popular actors for a full decade.
- Those Two Guys: With Fred Testot, his co-star on Service Après-Vente des émissions, although their comedy partnership has been dormant since Intouchables came out.
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: Rose to fame as a comedian in television skits, but has branched out into action films and dramas.
- Typecasting: In addition to frequently being at the center of An Immigrant's Tale, as noted above, he also tends to be the Lovable Rogue, with his two most famous roles (Driss in Intouchables and Assane in Lupin) fitting this archetype perfectly. If you see him on a police force, though, expect him to play the Cowboy Cop. And as long as the role is reasonably comedic in nature—and sometimes, even if it isn't—he's likely to be a Large Ham.
