Born in 1991 to an engineer father and a mother who worked in insurance, Raphaël Quenard spent his childhood near Grenoble, in Gières. After obtaining a science baccalaureate, he enrolled at the École des pupilles de l'air 749 Grenoble-Montbonnot, but quickly left it to study chemistry. During his years of study, he went to Imperial College London for a research internship. In 2014, he graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie in Paris. For a few months, he was the parliamentary assistant of Bernadette Laclais, Member for the fourth constituency of Savoie.

Having been spotted by Jean-Laurent Cochet, he started his acting career by taking his lessons for free. He started filming in several short films, as well as joining director Houda Benyamina's "1000 visages" ("1,000 faces") association. In 2019, he met Emma Benestan at a workshop before joining the cast of her short film, L'Amour du risque, and her first feature, Fragile, in 2021. Thanks to director Émilie Noblet, he ended up auditioning for the series HP, where he took on the role of Jimmy, a manic-depressive junior doctor, who he played for two seasons. 

With his unusual presence and unclassifiable style, Quenard unleashed all his talent in the short film Les Mauvais Garçons by Élie Girard, which won the César of the best fiction short film in 2022. After minor appearances under Michel Hazanavicius (Coupez!), Cédric Jimenez (Novembre) and Jeanne Herry (Je verrai toujours vos visages), it was eventually his performance as Miralex, one of the heroes in Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Chien de la casse, that he made became known to the general public in 2023. It was a hard-fought role, demanding a great deal of insistence before the director would agree to meet him. 

Still in 2023, Quenard featured in the lineup of eight films and is now one of the actors to watch of his generation. After Mandibules in 2020 and Fumer fait tousser in 2022, he met Quentin Dupieux, who gave him the lead role of Yannick in the eponymous film. He has also worked for Maïwenn (Jeanne du Barry), Jérémie Rozan (Cash) and Marie Garel Weiss (Sur la branche) and continues to showcase a style honed with a great deal of hard work, cheek, weirdness and brilliant improvisation. 

Recognised as one of the most promising talents in French cinema, Quenard has already received several awards for his performances. He won the Best Actor Award at the Côté Court Festival in Pantin in 2021, for Les Mauvois garçons. He also won the Male Performance Award from the La Ciotat Berceau du Cinéma Festival for Chien de la casse, as well as the Swann d'or at the Cabourg Festival for the same film, in 2023. 

Pre-selected for the César 2024 Revelations list, Quenard has also just been made a Dior menswear ambassador. In 2024, he will appear in Trois Fantastiques, the début film by Michaël Dichter, which explores disappointments and betrayed friendships. Directed by Gilles Lellouche, he will also play one of the heroes in L'Amour ouf, an adaptation of the novel Jackie loves Johnser OK? by the Irish writer Neville Thompson.