Tomer Sisley

Tomer Sisley (born Tomer Gazit; Hebrew: תומר סיסלי; born 14 August 1974) is an Israeli[1] and French actor and comedian.

Tomer Sisley
Tomer Sisley at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival
Born
Tomer Gazit

(1974-08-14) 14 August 1974
West Berlin, West Germany
Citizenship
  • Israel
  • France
Occupation(s)Actor, comedian
Years active1996–present
Children3

Early and personal life

Born in West Berlin, West Germany, to Israeli-born parents who had relocated for his father's job as a research scientist in dermatology.[1][2] His mother is also a dermatologist.[3] His parents met as schoolmates in Ramat Gan, Israel, and were childhood sweethearts.[2][4] His father's family has roots in Lithuania and today's Belarus, while his mother is of Yemenite descent.[5][2]

His parents separated when he was five years old. At 9 years of age, he left Berlin to live with his father in southern France, where his father was offered a position.[4][2] He is fluent in German, Hebrew, French, and English. He attended an English-speaking school, and then attended the bi-lingual Centre international de Valbonne in Sophia Antipolis near Nice, France.[1][3]

Sisley resides in Paris with his family, and has taught Hebrew to his three children.[1][2] He spends about a month a year in Israel where most of his relatives reside, and has cousins and uncles who were in the Israeli Special Forces.[2] He is a horse rider, practiced 5 years of Krav Maga, and trains in jiujitsu and boxing.[6][7] He is also a helicopter pilot, and also races boats, does skydiving, paragliding, and extreme skiing.[8][9]

Career

Comedy

Sisley performed six years of stand-up comedy.[8][3] In 2003 he was the first French stand-up comedian to win the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Canada, the largest comedy festival in the world.[8][3]

Scandal

In early summer 2019, it was brought to light that, in France Tomer was giving a literal introduction to American stand-up, performing jokes and routines - sometimes word for word - from nearly 20 English-speaking comedians, largely from stand-up specials performed from 1999 to 2004. Sisley appeared to have taken individual bits from Ted Alexandro, Jon Stewart, Nick Swardson, Mitch Hedberg and, of course, the perennially-stolen-from Bill Hicks. And many, many more.[10]

Film
Tomer Sisley skydiving for the filming of Largo Winch II.

Among his first films were the Tunisian fictional film Bedwin Hacker (2003), the comedy drama Virgil (2005), the French romantic comedy-drama Toi et moi (2006), the French crime film Truands (2007), and the French action thriller Largo Winch (2008). In 2009, Sisley won the Most Promising Newcomer title at the Étoiles d'or French awards for his acting in Largo Winch.[8]

In 2011, Sisley accepted the leading part in a low-budget French thriller film Sleepless Night.[11] The movie was bought by Tribeca Productions, Robert De Niro's distribution company, and Warner Brothers bought the rights for a remake.[12] The film showed at the Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and Rome Film Festival.[13]

In the French action thriller Largo Winch II (2011), Sisley performed a fight while skydiving from a plane without a parachute. He does all of his own stunts.[1][7] Among his next films were the American comedy We're the Millers (2013), the French costume drama and adventure film Angélique (2013), and the Israeli-French docudrama political thriller Rabin, the Last Day (2015).

In the American thriller web television series Messiah (2020) Sisley plays Israeli Shin Bet intelligence officer Aviram Dahan.[14][1][15]

Filmography

References
  1. Radish, Christina (2020-01-03). "Messiah: Tomer Sisley on the New Netflix Series". Collider. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  2. Gerri Miller (2020-01-02). "Man of God or Fraud? Netflix Miniseries 'Messiah' Seeks the Truth". Jewish Journal. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  3. Tobias Grey (March 2004). "Tomer Sisley; Stand-up on a tightrope". Paris Voice. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  4. Tidhar Wald (2004-03-25). "Tomer Sisley's tour de force". Haaretz. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  5. Wolfisz, Francine (2020-01-03). "Top 10 Jewish shows to watch on Netflix and Amazon in 2020! | Jewish News". Times of Israel. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  6. Jean-François Erdeven (2009-07-20). "Interview - Tomer Sisley (Largo Winch)". EcranLarge. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  7. Matt Singer (May 11, 2012). "'Sleepless Night' Interview: Director Frederic Jardin and Star Tomer Sisley". ScreenCrush. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  8. Daniel Jeffreys (2009-07-05). "Tomer Sisley". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  9. V.M.M. (November 13, 2019). "Tomer Sisley: "Balthazar sort un peu des sentiers battus"". Le Progres. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  10. Samuel, Henry (22 June 2019). "France's top stand-up comics outed for plagiarising US counterparts". The Telegraph.
  11. Jeannette Catsoulis (May 10, 2012). "'Sleepless Night,' Directed by Frédéric Jardin". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  12. Bettinger, Brendan (2011-09-22). "SLEEPLESS NIGHT Remake in the Works". Collider. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  13. "Film Info Sleepless Night," Tribeca Film.
  14. Roxane Mansano (2020-01-01). "Messiah: Tomer Sisley dévoile quelle difficulté il a rencontrée sur le tournage gigantesque de la série de Netflix". Programme-tv.net. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  15. John Anderson (December 31, 2019). "‘Messiah’ Review: What Is His Mission?," The Wall Street Journal.
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