Who is Artus, the jack-of-all-trades comedian who became king of the box office with “A little thing in more”?

He was a cook before being a comedian then an actor, now a director: at 36 years old, Artus took the world of cinema by surprise with “Un p’tit truc en plus”, his comedy on disability with five million spectators.

Actor, cook, comedian, Artus created a surprise with A little something extra, Artus’ comedy performed by actors with disabilities. The film reached the milestone of five million spectators on Saturday in just one month of release and established itself as the biggest success of French cinema since the health crisis.

Real name Victor-Artus Solaro, Artus grew up in Hérault, south of France, with dreams of cinema in his head. Out of pragmatism and because he evolves far from the world of the stage and the 7th art, he is moving towards a professional cooking baccalaureate, “to have a real job”.

A few years later, he was caught up in his comic streak and enrolled at the Cours Florent in Paris, which he followed for several months. An experience which he will say on numerous occasions that it does not “didn’t match”the comedian explaining that he felt out of place there.

In July 2011, encouraged by his parents who paid for the venue, he performed at the Off d’Avignon with his show Go play on the highway. Among the forty spectators, the assistant of the successful host Laurent Ruquier…

Presence on stage, worked verve: Ruquier and his team see the potential of this young shoot who is just waiting to prove himself. He joins the show We just want to laugh about it on France 2. It gives pride of place to comedians still unknown to the general public who are then rated by a jury and the public.

If the competition is fierce, Artus very quickly finds its place. The show will be the springboard he had never dared hope for. He remained there until the end, in 2014. At the same time, he began performing shows and went on several tours throughout France. His one-man show Artus from A to S is a success.

Each time, the tone is provocative, even insolent. On social networks, it is his character Sylvain, a young man with Down syndrome, who is a hit. His sketch on disabled sports (9.5 million views on YouTube) is one of those that made him famous. Anguished by nature, as he has said on several occasions, he used humor as a weapon to play down the drama.

Well established in the landscape of humor, Artus will gradually move towards other registers. A participation in the show Dance with the stars in 2016 (where he finished third) to another, the same year, in the first season of Best Pastry Chefincluding hosting the 2019 Netflix show It’s a piece of cakeArtus accumulates all the experiences.

Anyone who defines themselves as a workaholic doesn’t forget the film sets. In 2017, a small role but a big victory: the public found him in the guise of Jonas Maury, a (slightly nerdy) analyst of the successful French series The Legends Office. Victory because it is his first role in a non-comic register.

Other roles, often modest, in the cinema will follow. As in Bernadettea false biopic on the former First Lady Bernadette Chirac, released in the fall of 2023. As for the stage, which he has never really left, he will return to it at the end of September at the Edouard VII theater in Paris with Artus One man show.