# Zita Hanrot

Zita Hanrot (born 7 December 1989 in Marseille, France) is a French actress. She received widespread critical acclaim and later won the César Award for Most Promising Actress in 2016 for her role in the film, Fatima.

## Early life and career

Zita Hanrot was born in 1989, to an English mother of Jamaican descent and a French father. Her father is a graphic designer and her mother is an illustrator and graphic designer. Many of her father's relatives are set designers, landscapers, or architects. She grew up with an interest in artistic careers and took classes in classical dance as a child. After graduating from high school in Marseille, she enrolled in Art History classes, originally intending to pursue a career similar to her parents. However, she disliked the courses and later dropped out after studying for three months. Instead, she enrolled in private theatre classes at the Ecole D Art dramatique Sylvia Roche in Marseille with the intention of leaving her hometown to pursue acting professionally. She successfully auditioned for a place at École du Jeu in Paris at aged 20. She lived in an eight square metre apartment and worked evening shifts at a café. In 2011, she was accepted into the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique, France's national drama school, in Paris. She graduated in 2014. Hanrot appeared in commercials such as the French army campaign (2006) alongside the French actor Karl E. Landler. She has cited the actress Béatrice Dalle as an inspiration, particularly for her role in the 1986 film Betty Blue.
Before graduating from the Conservatory, she was cast in her first film role in 2012 in Radiostars, directed by Romain Lévy, in which she plays the younger sister of Manu Payet. She subsequently played minor roles in The New Girlfriend in 2013, and Eden in 2014. Her breakthrough role came in 2015's Fatima (2015), for which she was awarded the César Award for Most Promising Actress. In the film, directed by Philippe Faucon, she plays Nesrine, a medical student and the daughter of a north-African immigrant, determined to improve her position in life.
Following the success of Fatima, Hanrot filmed a role in Marie Garel Weiss's directorial debut film called, La Fête est finie ("The party is over" in English) in 2016. The movie was released in 2017. In June 2019, she began filming the ecological whistleblower drama, Red Soil. Hanrot plays an occupational nurse who uncovers corruption at the chemical factory where she works. The movie was later released in the UK for streaming services on 16 August 2021.
From 2018 to 2022, she starred in three seasons of the Netflix original French-language comedy, Plan Coeur (marketed as "The Hook Up Plan" in English-speaking regions). A special lockdown episode was filmed in France in 2020 and highlighted the changes in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, she was among 10 actors selected for the European Film Promotion's European Shooting Star award, which highlights up-and-coming film talent across Europe.
In 2024, Harper's Bazaar Australia praised her work in the French fashion drama television series, La Maison, which streamed worldwide on AppleTV+. Hanrot stated that her character in the series, "Paloma", a Berlin-based fashion designer, was inspired by British fashion designer, Alexander McQueen. To prepare for the role, she watched documentaries on fashion history with a specific focus on Alexander McQueen's career. Hanrot is a fan of Alexander McQueen. La Maison has been compared to the Max drama, Succession, with critics dubbing it, "The French Succession".
In 2024, she starred in the biopic, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, as the titular character; the film was screened at TIFF in Canada and at the Lincoln Center in New York City in the autumn of 2024.

## Personal life

Her brother, Idrissa Hanrot, is also an actor, starring notably in the 2016 film Five. In April 2022, Hanrot revealed on her personal Instagram account that she was expecting her first child. In an interview with Chanel, she said that she enjoys reading and cited works by French philosopher and psychoanalyst, Anne Dufourmantelle, as some of her favourite books. In that same interview, she revealed that her father's garden in Marseille is one of her favourite places to read and expressed that she would like to play Haruki Murakami's character, "Aomame", from his 1Q84 trilogy or "Nora" from Henrik Isben's 1879 play, A Doll's House. Hanrot previously studied Isben while attending drama school in Paris during her early 20s. She cites Edward Scrissorhands as a film that frightened her as a child and her favourite director is Danish filmmaker, Lars von Trier. She is fluent in English. She lived in Marseille from birth until aged 20 and resides in Paris as of 2024.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2004 | Le Tuteur | Malika | TV series |
| 2012 | Radiostars | Jennifer | Film debut |
| 2013 | Run | Dounia | Short film |
| 2014 | Eden | Anaïs | |
| 2014 | The New Girlfriend | Restaurant waitress | |
| 2014 | Errance | The girl on the train | Short film |
| 2015 | Rose et le soldat | Rose | Telefilm |
| 2015 | Nuit/Béton | Morgane | Short film |
| 2015 | Chefs | Nadia | TV mini-series |
| 2015 | Fatima | Nesrine | César Award for Most Promising Actress |
| 2015 | Chez Victoire | Iris | Telefilm |
| 2015 | Point du Jour | Sabrina | Short film |
| 2016 | Le Gang des Antillais | Linda | |
| 2016 | De sas en sas | | |
| 2016 | T.A.N.K. | Zoé | 10 episodes; television series |
| 2017 | La fête est finie | Sihem | French film |
| 2017 | K.O. | Dina | French film |
| 2018 | Paul Sanchez est revenu! | Marion | French film |
| 2018-2022 | The Hook Up Plan | Elsa | Netflix original series - 21 Episodes (3 seasons) |
| 2019 | The Swallows of Kabul | Zunaira (voice) | |
| 2020 | School Life | Samia | Netflix Original |
| 2020 | Red Soil | Nour Hamadi | Film; known as Rouge in French-language markets |
| 2021 | Love, Death & Robots | Hirald | Season 2, episode "Snow in the Desert" |
| 2022 | Angry Annie | Hélène | French film |
| 2023 | Lee | Ady Fidelin [fr] |
| 2024 | La Maison [fr] | Paloma Castel | AppleTV+ original series (Lead role) |
| 2024 | The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire | Suzanne Césaire | Titular role/Lead |
| 2025 | Ad Vitam | Manon | Netflix original film |