Mohamed Fellag

Mohamed Fellag (born 31 March 1950 in Azeffoun, Tizi Ouzou) is an Algerian comedian, writer, humorist, and actor. In 1958, at the height of the Algerian war of independence, his father took him and his younger brother, for their safety, to stay with an aunt in Beni-Messous (then a very small village near Algiers) where they went to primary school. He did his secondary studies in Tizi-Ouzou (Ecole Jeanmaire and CEG.) He entered the School of Dramatic Arts of Algiers in 1968 and stayed there for four years performing in several theatres throughout Algeria.

==Career== From 1978 to 1985, he participated in several theatrical productions, before returning to Algeria in 1985 to join the National Theatre of Algeria to play the principal role in Eduardo De Filippo's production of L’Art de la Comédie. In 1986, he played in Ray Bradbury's Le Costume Blanc Couleur Glace à la Noix de Coco and created Les Aventures de Tchop, his first one-man show. He acted in a number of movies and TV shows during the period of turbulence in Algeria during the late 80s and early 90s. In 1989 he wrote the play Cocktail Khorotov and SOS Labès in 1990. He followed this in 1992 with ''Un bateau pour l'Australie-Babor Australia. In 1995, after a bomb explosion during one of his presentations, he moved first to Tunisia and then to France. There he found success on stage with his plays that confronted the social difficulties of France. He has appeared in numerous films, particularly since 2005, including the Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar, for which he won a Canadian Genie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.