François Berléand

French actor François Berléand began a nice run in 2000 at his country's prestigious César Awards. He won Best Supporting Actor for his part in the comedy-drama "My Little Business," set in a wood shop that is fighting against an insurance fraud scam. In 2003, he starred for writer-director Guillaume Canet as the producer of a top-rated TV show, landing another nomination for Best Actor via "Whatever You Say."

Two years later, in 2005, Berléand was once more in the running at the Césars for his part on "The Chorus," an acclaimed classroom drama that won the 2004 Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. Overall, the pace of Berléand's career reflects just how prolific a member of the French film and TV industry can be. He has done everything from a 1970s TV production of "Hamlet" to the Isabelle Adjani-starring 1988 biopic, "Camille Claudel." He really hit his stride in the 2000s: in the year 2010, for example, he achieved more than a dozen different small-screen credits.