Born in Marseille in 1989, Zita Hanrot has roots in Jamaica and Guyana. At the age of eight, she appeared in a Doc Gynéco video and continued along this path by regularly appearing in the TV series Le Tuteur (The Tutor, 2004).

At 18, she began studying art history, which she quickly abandoned to move to Paris and fulfil her love for theatre by returning to the École du jeu theatre school. She landed minor roles for major French directors such as Romain Lévy, François Ozon and Mia Hansen-Love before her breakthrough in Fatima (2015) by Philippe Faucon, which earned her a César.

As she continues her acting career, Zita Hanrot is moving on to directing in 2019 with her first short film La Maman des poissons, which poetically chronicles cousins in mourning.

Comedies, science fiction, thrillers, social dramas, socially engaged films...when Zita Hanrot takes on roles she reinvents herself in each project. Not hesitating to distinguish between series and auteur films, the spirit of the Marseillaise refuses to restrict itself to a single genre.

Whether portraying the daughter of an immigrant studying medicine in Fatima (2015), a junkie in La fête est finie (The Party’s Over, 2018), a police officer in the throes of madness in Paul Sanchez est revenu ! (Paul Sanchez Is Back !,2018) or a very serious senior education adviser in La Vie Scolaire (School Life, 2019), Zita Hanrot is often offered sad, melancholy roles. Throughout her filmography, she has portrayed characters who are lonely and fragile.

Thrust into the spotlight in 2016 when she received her César for Most Promising Actress for Fatima, Zita Hanrot confirmed her talent by receiving two Best Actress Awards at the Sarlat Film Festival and the Saint-Jean-de-Luz International Festival a year later for La fête est finie. A leading actress of France's new generation, Zita Hanrot regularly appears at festivals with her films.

Now in her 30s, she also become internationally known as a director in 2019: her first short, La Maman des poissons, was presented at the Cannes Film Festival before headlining at the Tangier National Film Festival in Morocco, and then at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2020.