Théo Fernandez
Theo Fernandez has spent his entire screen life inside one family. He first played Donald Tuche in 2011, in the comedy about a broke French clan that suddenly comes into money, and he has played him in every sequel since: the American trip in 2016, the third film in 2018, the Christmas entry in 2021, and God Save the Tuches in 2025. Very few actors get to grow from child to adult inside a single running character, and the series has quietly become a record of him doing it.
The obvious attempt at escape came in 2018, when he took the lead in Gaston Lagaffe as Franquin's famously lazy office catastrophe, a live-action version of one of the best-loved Belgian comic strips. It is demanding casting: the character is essentially a walking sight gag with no interior life, and the film asks a young actor to carry the whole thing.
Before that he had a small part as Bob in My Golden Days in 2015, the one credit here that comes from an entirely different kind of French cinema. He has also worked steadily in French television films and series.
Movies (7)
Where to start with Théo Fernandez
Start at the beginning with The Tuche Family, because the joke of the whole run is watching this family stay exactly themselves while their circumstances keep changing, and that only pays off if you meet them poor first.
The Tuche Family: The American Dream is the strongest sequel and the best use of Fernandez, who by then has aged into the part rather than out of it. The Magic Tuche, Christmas with the Tuches and God Save the Tuches are for viewers already committed, and they run on affection more than invention.
Outside the family, Gaston Lagaffe is the interesting failure to argue about, a live-action comic-strip adaptation with him at the centre, and My Golden Days is worth seeing on its own terms, with his part small enough that you should not go in expecting him.