French actress Audrey Tautou became an international star with her performance in fable Amelie (2001). She won a Cesar for her performance in the 1999 movie Venus Beauty Institute, making her a movie star in her native country. In 2002 she had her first English-speaking role in Dirty Pretty Things.

A dark-haired gamine who was something of a throwback to actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron, Audrey Tautou made an auspicious film debut as the sweetly innocent beauty salon worker who engages in a flirtation with an older gentleman in "Venus Beaute Institut" (1999). Audrey earned the Cesar as most promising female newcomer for her work in the film.

Audrey was born in Beaumont, France and raised in rural Montlucon. After majoring in science and obtaining her Baccalaureat (French high school diploma) with honors, she enrolled in the Cours Florent actors studio while pursuing a degree in French Literature. She began her performing career in a series of made for French television movies and shorts that displayed her beauty and talent. Selected as the winner of a competition sponsored by Canal+, she landed her first film. Subsequent to that breakthrough role, Tautou appeared as a teen runaway in "Voyous voyelles" (1999) and supported Vincent Perez in two 2000 releases: "Epouse-moi" and the comedy "Le Libertin". She displayed her charms and her flair for romantic comedy as the heroine of the "Happenstance/Le Battement d'ailes du papillon" (2001).

Tautou caught her biggest break, though, when British actress Emily Watson dropped out of a proposed teaming with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. After auditioning for the role of a Monmartre waitress who embarks on fixing the lives of others while neglecting her own, the charismatic and beautiful actress landed the star-making role in the whimsical "Le Fableux destin d'Amelie Poulain" (2001) which became a box-office juggernaut in France. With a shortened title, "Amelie", the film, propelled by Tautou's sly and charming turn, went on to enchant critics and audiences throughout the world.

Tautou next graced screens in France as a young woman searching for love and spirituality in "God is Great, I'm not." (2002).

Credit: biggeststars.com