Reda Kateb

Kateb grew up in Ivry-sur-Seine, just outside Paris, with theater basically running through his veins. His dad, Malek-Eddine Kateb, was a legit Algerian actor, and his mom worked as a nurse. Oh, and get this—his great uncle was Kateb Yacine, a pretty big deal in Algerian literature. So yeah, creativity ran in the family, big time. Life in Ivry was all about the stage. He spent his childhood surrounded by scripts and spotlights, tagging along with his dad to rehearsals and soaking up everything theater. It's not surprising that by the time he hit 12, he’d already made up his mind—he wanted to act too, just like his old man. But he wasn’t about to take the easy route. Nope, he started off by reciting the works of his great uncle, Kateb Yacine, which isn’t exactly light reading for a kid. That’s some heavy, poetic stuff for a pre-teen, but he totally dove in headfirst. He stuck around Ivry-sur-Seine until 2011, when he decided to shake things up and move to Montreuil. Even then, the theater didn’t let him go. Being the son of an actor and carrying that literary legacy, it just made sense. It’s like he was born into this world of storytelling, and from the start, he was determined to carve out his own place—while still giving a nod to the family legends before him.