Famous people from Algeria
Here is a list of famous people from Algeria. Curious if anybody from Algeria made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.
Albert Camus
Novelist
Albert Camus was a writer.
Yves Saint Laurent
Fashion Designer
Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent, was a French fashion designer, and is regarded as one of the greatest names in fashion history. In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable." He is also credited with having introduced the tuxedo suit for women and was known for his use of non-European cultural references, and non-White models. Three documentaries have been made about Saint Laurent's life: David Teboul's "Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times", "Yves Saint Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris" and Pierre Thoretton's "L'Amour Fou".
Patrick Bruel
Singer
Patrick Bruel is a French singer, actor, and professional poker player of Jewish descent.
Daniel Auteuil
Actor
Daniel Auteuil is a French film, television and theatre actor. In 1996, he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival together with Belgian actor Pascal Duquenne. He is also the winner of two César Award for Best Actor, one in 1987 as Ugolin Soubeyran in Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources and another one for his role in Girl on the Bridge. For his role in Jean de Florette, he also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Cheb Mami
Raï Artist
Ahmed Khelifati Mohamed better known by his stage name Cheb Mami, is an Algerian raï singer. He sings and speaks in Algerian Arabic, and sometimes, as on Layali, in Egyptian Arabic.
Louis Althusser
Philosopher
Louis Pierre Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a longtime member—although sometimes a strong critic—of the French Communist Party. His arguments and thesis were set against the threats that he saw attacking the theoretical foundations of Marxism. These included both the influence of empiricism on Marxist theory, and humanist and reformist socialist orientations which manifested as divisions in the European communist parties, as well as the problem of the "cult of personality" and of ideology. Althusser is commonly referred to as a structural Marxist, although his relationship to other schools of French structuralism is not a simple affiliation and he was critical of many aspects of structuralism. Althusser's life was marked by periods of intense mental illness. During one of his bouts, he killed his wife by strangling her.
Enrico Macias
Chanson Artist
Gaston Ghrenassia, known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is a French Pied noir singer and musician. He is popular throughout the world and has travelled extensively for fifty years, from the early 1960s to the present.
Alain Mimoun
Olympic athlete
Alain Mimoun was a French long-distance runner who competed in track events, cross-country running and the marathon. He was the 1956 Olympic champion in the marathon. He is the most medalled French athletics sportsperson in history. In 1999, readers of the French athletics magazine Athlétisme voted him as the “French Athlete of the 20th Century”. On the track Mimoun won three Olympic silver medals, finishing second behind Emil Zátopek in the 10,000 metres final in 1948 and again second behind him in both the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres finals in 1952. He was also the silver medallist in both events behind Zátopek at the 1950 European Athletics Championships. Between 1949 and 1958 he won four individual titles at the International Cross Country Championships as well as placing runner-up twice. He was a four-time gold medallist at the Mediterranean Games, completing the 5,000 m/10,000 m double in both 1951 and 1955. Born in French Algeria, Mimoun fought military battles for France and the Western Allies during World War II . He settled in metropolitan France shortly after leaving the French army. Overall he represented France at the Olympics on four occasions. He competed internationally for France on 86 occasions. From 1947 to 1966, he won a total of 29 senior titles in the 5000 m, 10000 m, marathon and cross-country events of the French national athletics championships. Mimoun continued to run in his later life and set a number of veteran age-category records.
Étienne Daho
French pop Artist
Étienne Daho is a French singer, songwriter and record producer who has released a number of synth-driven and rock-surf influenced pop hit singles since 1981.
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Philosopher
Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French public intellectual and author. Often referred to today in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976. According to The Jerusalem Post, Bernard-Henri Lévy is the 45th most influential Jew in the world.
Ishak Belfodil
Soccer
Ishak Belfodil is an Algerian football player who currently plays for Italian club Inter Milan in Serie A. A former France youth international, he was called up to the Algeria national team for the first time in August 2012.
Zaho
Singer
Zehira Darabid known by her artistic name Zaho is an Algerian R&B singer.
Rachid Taha
Raï Artist
Rachid Taha is an Algerian singer and activist based in France who has been described as "sonically adventurous." His music is influenced by many different styles such as rock, electronic, punk and raï.
Cheb Hasni
Raï Artist
Cheb Hasni born Hasni Chakroun was a performer of Algerian Raï music. He was popular across North Africa, having reached the height of his career in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was the son of a welder and grew up in a working-class family where he was one of seven children. Hasni is most well known for his love songs, but he also dealt with taboo subjects such as divorce and alcohol. He was murdered in 1994.
Tariq ibn Ziyad
Military Person
Tariq ibn Ziyad was a Muslim general who led the Islamic conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711-718 A.D. He is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Iberian history. Under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I he led a large army from the north coast of Morocco, consolidating his troops at a large hill now known as Gibraltar. The name "Gibraltar" is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Tāriq, meaning "mountain of Tariq", named after him.
Houari Boumediene
Politician
Houari Boumedienne served as Algeria's Chairman of the Revolutionary Council from 19 June 1965 until 12 December 1976, and from then on as the second President of Algeria to his death on 27 December 1978.
Abdelkader El Djezairi
Military Commander
Abdelkader ibn Muhieddine, known as the Emir Abdelkader or Abdelkader El Djezairi, was an Algerian religious and military leader who led a struggle against the French colonial invasion in the mid-19th century. An Islamic scholar and Sufi who unexpectedly found himself leading a military campaign, he built up a collection of Algerian tribesmen that for many years successfully held out against one of the most advanced armies in Europe. His consistent regard for what would now be called human rights, especially as regards his Christian opponents, drew widespread admiration, and a crucial intervention to save the Christian community of Damascus from a massacre in 1860 brought honours and awards from around the world. Within Algeria, his efforts to unite the country against foreign invaders saw him hailed as the "modern Jugurtha," and his ability to combine religious and political authority has led to his being acclaimed as the "Saint among the Princes, the Prince among the Saints".
Edwige Fenech
Actor
Edwige Fenech is a French-born Italian actress and film producer.
Kenza Farah
Hip hop Artist
Kenza Farah is a French singer-songwriter of Algerian origin. Her album Authentik won gold in its second week. It was followed up by Avec le coeur and Trésor.
Saint Monica
Deceased Person
Saint Monica, also known as Monica of Hippo, was an early Christian saint and the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo. She is honoured in the Roman Catholic Church where she is remembered and venerated for her outstanding Christian virtues, particularly the suffering against the adultery of her husband, and a prayerful life dedicated to the reformation of her son, who wrote extensively of her pious acts and life with her in his Confessions. Popular Christian legends recall Saint Monica to have wept every night for her son Augustine.
Ahmed Ben Bella
Politician
Ahmed Ben Bella was an Algerian socialist soldier and revolutionary who was the first President of Algeria from 1963 to 1965.
Kad Merad
Actor
Kad Merad, real name Kaddour Merad, is a French-Algerian actor who has acted both on stage and on screen.
Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois
Noble person
Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois, was the daughter of Prince Louis II of Monaco, and the mother of Prince Rainier III. From 1922 until 1944, she was the Hereditary Princess of Monaco, heiress-presumptive to the throne.
Jacques Attali
Economist
Jacques Attali is a French economist, writer and senior civil servant. Former adviser to President François Mitterrand and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, he founded the non-profit organization PlaNet Finance and was nominated President of the Commission for the Liberation of French Economic Growth. He is also Founder and President of A&A, a consultancy firm. He published more than fifty books, including essays and novels. He belongs to the top 100 public intellectuals in the world, according to the Foreign Policy Magazine
Yasmina Khadra
Screenwriter
Yasmina Khadra is the pen name of the Algerian author Mohammed Moulessehoul.
Jacques Rancière
Philosopher
Jacques Rancière is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris who came to prominence when he co-authored Reading Capital, with the structural Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser.
Tony Gatlif
Film Director
Tony Gatlif is a French film director of Romani ethnicity who also works as a screenwriter, composer, actor, and producer.
Idir
Singer
Hamid Cheriet better known by his stage name Idir is a Berber Algerian musician.
Matoub Lounès
Singer
Lounès Matoub was a famous Berber Kabyle singer and mondol player who was a prominent advocate of the Berber cause and secularism in Algeria throughout his life. He is revered as a hero and martyr in Kabylie and the Berber World but reviled by most of the Arab population in Algeria for his atheism and the alleged blasphemy of some songs along with his militant advocacy of Berber rights, so he was unpopular among both warring parties during the Algerian Civil War. His assassination, in circumstances which remain unclear, provoked violent riots in Kabylie. Berber Algerians still accuse the Algerian regime of killing Matoub Lounès, but some of the Algerian regime's figures accused the Islamist terrorists of this crime.
El Arbi Hillel Soudani
Soccer
El Arbi Hillel Soudani, is an Algerian footballer who plays for Dinamo Zagreb and the Algeria national team.
Matteo Ferrari
Soccer
Matteo Ferrari is an Italian footballer, currently playing for the Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer. He has also played top-flight football for several Italian clubs in Serie A, and Everton of the Premier League. Ferrari played for Italy at the Olympics in 2000 and 2004, winning Bronze at the latter. He also played 11 full internationals for his country, from 2002 to 2004, featuring in the squad for Euro 2004.
Islam Slimani
Soccer
Islam Slimani is an Algerian football player who plays as a striker for Portuguese Primeira Liga side Sporting Clube de Portugal and the Algeria national team. Slimani made his international debut in 2012. As of June 2013, has won 14 international caps and scored 9 goals.
Françoise Dürr
Tennis Tournament Champion
Françoise Dürr is a retired tennis player from France. She won 26 major singles titles and over 60 doubles titles. According to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Bud Collins, and the Women's Tennis Association, Dürr was ranked in the world top ten from 1965 through 1967, from 1970 through 1972, and from 1974 through 1976, reaching a career high of World No. 3 in those rankings in 1967. She finished second to Billie Jean King in prize money earnings in 1971. Dürr reached a total of 27 Grand Slam finals – 1 in singles, 18 in women's doubles, and 8 in mixed doubles. She won 12 of them.
Marcel Cerdan
Professional Boxer
Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a French pied noir world boxing champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa. His life was marked by his sporting achievements, social lifestyle and ultimately, tragedy. Marcel Cerdan was born on July 22, 1916 in Sidi Bel Abbès in what was then French Algeria.
Louis Bertignac
Singer
Louis Bertignac is a French guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. An ex Shakin' Street member and a founding member in 1976 of the rock band Téléphone, he formed Bertignac et les Visiteurs after Téléphone split in 1986. Tony Visconti produced his first solo album, Elle et Louis and Chris Kimsey the second, '96. In 2004, he produced, arranged and played guitar on the debut album by Carla Bruni, Quelqu'un m'a dit. Bruni in turn contributed lyrics to 10 of the 12 songs on Bertignac's 2005 album Longtemps. He performed at Live 8 at the Palace of Versailles on 2 July 2005.
Hélène Cixous
Playwright
Hélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College London in the UK; and Georgetown University, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA. In 2008 she was appointed as A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University until June 2014.
Ferhat Abbas
Politician
Ferhat Abbas was an Algerian political leader and briefly acted in a provisional capacity as the yet-to-become independent country's President from 1958 to 1961.
Martial Solal
Jazz pianist
Martial Solal is a French jazz pianist and composer, who is probably most widely known for the music he wrote for Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film À bout de souffle.
Noureddine Morceli
Olympic athlete
Noureddine Morceli is a retired Algerian athlete, winner of the 1500 m run at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Born in Ténès, Noureddine Morceli rose to athletic prominence after winning the silver medal in the 1500 m at the World Junior Championships in 1988. Morceli attended college in Riverside, California, and throughout his career, in winter, he would return there to enjoy the mild climate and train.
Nicole Garcia
Actor
Nicole Garcia is a French actress, film director and writer. Her film Selon Charlie was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her upcoming film Going Away has been selected to be screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Ahlam Mosteghanemi
Novelist
Ahlam Mosteghanemi, is an Algerian writer who has been called "the world's best-known arabophone woman novelist".
Robert Merle
Novelist
Robert Merle was a French novelist.
Taoufik Makhloufi
Olympic athlete
Taoufik Makhloufi is an Algerian track and field athlete who specialises in middle-distance running. He became the 1500 metres Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics. With his gold medal finish in the London Olympics, Makhloufi has faced numerous allegations of doping. He was also the 800 metres gold medallist at the 2012 African Championships and the 2011 All-Africa Games. He has twice represented Algeria at the World Championships in Athletics. His personal bests are 1:43.71 minutes for the 800 m and 3:30.80 minutes for the 1500 metres. He trains with GS Pétroliers.
Lakhdar Brahimi
Politician
Lakhdar Brahimi is an Algerian United Nations envoy and advisor, and since August 2012, the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria. He is also a member of The Elders, a group of world leaders working for global peace. Brahimi is a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the first global initiative to focus specifically on the link between exclusion, poverty and law. He is also a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an organization which works to promote good governance around the world. He is currently a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a governing board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Édouard-Henri Avril
Visual Artist
Édouard-Henri Avril was a French painter and commercial artist. Under the pseudonym Paul Avril, he was an illustrator of erotic literature. Born in Algiers, Avril studied art in various Paris salons. From 1874 to 1878 he was at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Having been commissioned to illustrate Théophile Gautier's novel Fortunio, he adopted the pseudonym Paul Avril. His reputation was soon established and he received many commissions to illustrate both major authors and the so-called "galante literature" of the day, a form of erotica. These books were typically sold in small editions on a subscription basis, organised by collectors. Avril illustrated such works as Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô, Gautier's Le Roi Caundale, John Cleland's Fanny Hill, Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray's Adventures of the Chevalier de Faublas, Mario Uchard's Mon Oncle Barbassou, Jules Michelet's The Madam, Hector France's Musk, Hashish and Blood, the writings of Pietro Aretino, and the anonymous lesbian novel Gamiani. His major work was designs for De Figuris Veneris: A Manual of Classical Erotica by the German scholar Friedrich Karl Forberg. Avril died at Le Raincy in 1928.
Jacques Fieschi
Screenwriter
Jacques Fieschi is a French screenwriter. He has written for more than 30 films since 1985. He wrote and directed the film French California, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Assia Djebar
Novelist
Assia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. She is "frequently associated with women's writing movements, her novels are clearly focused on the creation of a genealogy of Algerian women, and her political stance is virulently anti-patriarchal as much as it is anti-colonial." Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's pre-eminent and most influential writers. She was elected to the Académie française on 16 June 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such recognition. For the entire body of her work she was awarded the 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
Lakhdar Belloumi
Soccer Midfielder
Lakhdar Belloumi is a former Algerian football player and manager. He is widely considered as the best Algerian player of all time and one of the best players in Africa and the world. He is said to have invented the Blind Pass. He is awarded the 4th best African player of the century. He holds the record as the most capped Algerian player and he is the second best goalscorer of the Algeria team in all time after Abdelhafid Tasfaout. Belloumi's goal against reigning European champions West Germany earned Algeria a stunning 2–1 victory in their World Cup debut in Spain '82.
Mohamed Fellag
Playwright
Moh-Saïd Fellag 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 where they went to primary school. He did his secondary studies in Tizi-Ouzou He entered the School of Dramatic Arts of Algiers in 1968 and stayed there for four years performing in several theatres throughout Algeria.
Cheba Zahouania
Singer
Cheba Zahouania is an Algerian-born singer known for raï music. She has lived in France since her singing partner, Cheb Hasni, was murdered in 1994.
Patrice Dominguez
Tennis Player
Patrice Dominguez is a French tennis player born in Algeria. He reached a career high ranking of 36 in 1973. He represented France in the Davis Cup between 1971 and 1979. Dominguez was runner–up at the 1973 French Open mixed doubles event partnering Betty Stöve and again in 1978 partnering Virginia Ruzici. Between 2005 and 2011 he was the national technical director of the French Tennis Federation.
Faouzi Chaouchi
Soccer
Faouzi Chaouchi is an Algerian professional football goalkeeper who last played for Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 club MC Alger and the Algerian national team. Chaouchi is considered to be national hero by many Algerians, as he put in a heroic performance in the play-off that put the Algerian national team into their first World Cup finals since 1986 at the expense of their bitter rivals Egypt. He constantly denied the Egyptian national team all scoring opportunities. Chaouchi was only 23 years of age at the time of the play-off and played in place of suspended Lounès Gaouaoui. It was only Chaouchi's third cap during the unforgettable night in Al Merreikh Stadium, Omdurman. In 2010, Chaouchi was known to have been Algeria's highest-paid footballer, earning roughly around 13 million Algerian dinars.
Reda Taliani
Singer
Réda Tamni better known as Reda Taliani is an Algerian raï singer and musician. He is a longtime resident of Aubagne, Marseille, France. His music blends chaabi, raï and traditional musical styles of the Maghreb, and many of his songs depict the realities and aspirations of the Algerian youth.
Abdelmalek Sellal
Politician
Abdelmalek Sellal is an Algerian politician who has been Prime Minister of Algeria since 3 September 2012.
Jean Benguigui
Actor
Jean Benguigui is a French actor of the screen, stage and on television. He was born on 8 April 1944 in Oran. He is of Jewish and Algerian descent. In 2006 and 2007 he played the role of impresario Cartoni in a new adaptation of the operetta Le Chanteur de Mexico at the Théâtre du Châtelet.
Djamila Bouhired
Person or entity appearing in film
Djamila Bouhared appeared in the 2007 film Terror's Advocate.
Gilles Apap
Violinist
Gilles Apap is a French classical violinist. Born in Bougie, Algeria, he was raised in Nice, France. In 1985 he won first prize in the contemporary music category at the Yehudi Menuhin Competition. He served as concertmaster with the Santa Barbara Symphony in California for 10 years, but has since focused on his career as a soloist with orchestras around the world. A virtuosic violinist, Gilles is well known for his love of, and respect for, traditional music from Eastern Europe to America and for his ability to convey an authentic sound to his audience, whether the music be gypsy, Irish, swing, or bluegrass. He recorded three CDs in the 1990s with Sony Classical, then formed his own company, Apapaziz Productions, with the help of supportive friends. Since 1999, Apapaziz has recorded eight Gilles Apap CDs, the latest, “Gypsy Tunes...California Style, that Is”, with the Transylvanian Mountain Boys.
Pierre Rabhi
Environmentalist
Pierre Rabhi is a French writer, farmer and environmentalist. Originally a Muslim, he converted to Christianity for some years before rejecting all religions. He studied in France as a youth. He invented the concept of Oasis en tous lieux - Oasis in any place. He proposes a society that functions in a manner that respects populations and land and supports the development of agricultural techniques that take care of the environment preserving natural resources. His theories relate particularly though not exclusively to arid countries.
Jean Fernandez
Soccer
Jean Fernandez is a football manager, who is currently the manager of French side Montpellier HSC. He has previously managed FC Metz and Marseille, where French national team star Franck Ribéry saw him as a mentor. He managed AJ Auxerre for five years, and was named as France's manager of the year in the 2009/10 season after guiding Auxerre into the UEFA Champions League. He managed Nancy for the 2011 season and half of the 2012 season. Jean Fernandez resigned from his position with Nancy before the end of the 2013 season on 10 January 2013. He became the new Montpellier manager on July 1st 2013. Fernandez competed for France at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Rafik Saïfi
Soccer Midfielder
Rafik Saïfi is an Algerian professional football player who is currently playing for Amiens SC in the Championnat National.
Malek Brahimi
Singer
Malek Brahimi better known by his stage name Freeman is a French hip hop artist and breakdancer. He is a member of the successful hip hop group IAM together with Akhenaton, Shurik'n, Khéops, Imhotep, and Kephren. He has also worked as a solo artist and an actor. Freeman lives in Marseille, but says that he is above all an Internationalist. Brahimi was born in Algiers, Algeria on 9 May 1972, and has lived most of his life in the district of Belsunce, in Marseille. At first, when IAM was formed in 1988, Brahimi worked with them as a breakdancer under the alias Abdelmalek Sultan, but he soon started rapping and appearing on the group's albums. In 1999, he published his first solo album, L'palais de justice. Freeman also appeared as an actor in Comme un aimant, a 2000 film by fellow IAM member Akhenaton and Kamel Saleh.
Cheikha Rimitti
Raï Artist
Cheikha Rimitti was a popular Algerian raï female singer.
Pierre Dukan
Author
Pierre Dukan was a French medical doctor and nutritionist, and the creator of the famous Dukan Diet. He was born in Algiers, French Algeria in 1941.
Zouzou
Actor
Zouzou is a model, actress, singer and icon of the 1960s and early 1970s mostly known for her beauty and for her lead role in Éric Rohmer's Love in the Afternoon. Her career, however, was constantly hampered by her addiction to heroin and other drugs. The nickname "Zouzou" is due to her zézaiement of the consonants 's','j' and 'z'. Her boyfriends during her years of fame included Brian Jones, Michel Taittinger, Dave Davies, Jean-Paul Goude and Jack Nicholson .
Essaïd Belkalem
Soccer
Essaïd Belkalem is an Algerian footballer who plays as a defender for English Championship side Watford on loan from Granada and the Algeria national team.
Rafik Halliche
Soccer
Rafik Halliche is an Algerian professional footballer who plays for Académica de Coimbra in Portugal, as a central defender. An Algerian international, Halliche has represented the nation at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2010 World Cup.
Didier Bourdon
Actor
Didier Bourdon is a French Algerian-born actor, screenwriter and film director. He first reached stardom in France when he created the comedic trio Les Inconnus with Bernard Campan and Pascal Légitimus, which was very popular throughout the 1990s.
Guy Bedos
Actor
Guy Bedos is an actor and a famous stand-up comedian. He is also famous for his left-wing political affiliation and he had supported politicians such as François Mitterrand.
Messali Hadj
Politician
Ahmed Ben Messali Hadj was an Algerian nationalist politician dedicated to the independence of his homeland from France. He co-founded the Étoile nord-africaine, the Parti du peuple algérien and the Mouvement pour le triomphe des libertés démocratiques before dissociating himself from the armed struggle for Independence in 1954. He also founded the Mouvement national algérien to counteract the ongoing efforts of the Front de libération nationale.
Alphonse Juin
Military Person
Alphonse Pierre Juin was a Marshal of France.
Mardochée Elkoubi
Chanson Artist
Guy Mardel is a French-Algerian singer, best known for his participation in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest. Mardel lived his first 15 years in Algeria before moving to France in 1959. He later enrolled in law school, while singing recreationally with a jazz band. He signed a contract with AZ Records in 1963 and released two singles before being chosen internally by channel ORTF in 1965 to represent France in that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "N'avoue jamais". At the contest, held in Naples on 20 March, "N'avoue jamias" finished in third place of the 18 entries. Mardel was unable to capitalise on his Eurovision success, despite releasing many singles up until the 1980s. In the 1970s he moved into record production, setting up his own record label, MM, in 1977. Mardel now lives in Jerusalem.
Catherine Destivelle
Mountaineer
Catherine Monique Suzanne Destivelle is an Algerian-born French rock climber and mountaineer. In 1992 she became the first woman to complete a solo ascent of the Eiger's north face. She completed the climb in winter in 17 hours. Her other notable climbs include the Bonatti Route on the north face of the Matterhorn and the southwest pillar of the Aiguille du Dru. Destivelle has been the subject of several documentaries, including French director Rémy Tezier's, Beyond the Summits, which won the award for best feature-length mountain film at the 2009 Banff Mountain Film Festival.
Robert Ménard
Organization founder
Robert Ménard is one of the founders and the former secretary-general of the Paris-based international NGO Reporters Sans Frontières. Ménard came from an old French family which had lived in Algeria since the 1850s. When he was nine years old, the family moved to Brusque, Aveyron. He studied religion, and planned on becoming a priest. While in college, he became aligned with Trotskyist elements, and joined the Socialist Party. In 1975-1976, Ménard created the pirate radio station Radio Pomarède and became president of l'Association pour la libération des ondes - The Association for the liberation of the airwaves. He became the target of many lawsuits, in one of which, François Mitterrand, later President of France gave a character reference. He later created the free magazine Le Petit biterrois but was forced to close it down due to a lack of advertisers. In 1985 he created Reporters Sans Frontières. A Rue89 post claims Ménard became the focus of significant controversy after an interview with France Culture in which in response to a question about the case of the kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl he made a statement which some have interpreted as saying that the use of torture could be justified in some circumstances.
Mohammed Dib
Novelist
Mohammed Dib was an Algerian author. He wrote over 30 novels, as well as numerous short stories, poems, and children's literature in the French language. He is probably Algeria's most prolific and well-known writer. His work covers the breadth of 20th century Algerian history, focusing on Algeria's fight for independence.
Pierre Bensusan
Guitarist
Pierre Bensusan is a French-Algerian guitarist. As sephardic Jews, his family came from Spain, Spanish Morocco and French Algeria. The genre of his acoustic guitar music is often characterized as Celtic, Folk, World music, New Age, or Chamber jazz. He has also published three books of music and tablature. A wide variety of musical styles and influences can be heard in his music. Born in 1957 in Oran, French Algeria, he moved to Paris with his family when he was four years old. He took up the piano at the age of seven and, at the age of eleven, began to teach himself guitar. He signed the contract for his first album, Près de Paris, when he was just seventeen; it was released one year later, winning him the Grand Prix du Disque at the Montreux Festival. His many influences include Davey Graham, Larry Carlton, Django Reinhardt, Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, Ry Cooder, Big Bill Broonzy, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Ralph Towner, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny and Paco de Lucía. Pierre Bensusan's solo acoustic guitar work has featured use of the DADGAD tuning system and electronics such as delays, distortions and volume pedals, which have been largely abandoned on recent tours.
Ali Benarbia
Soccer Midfielder
Ali Benarbia is a retired Algerian footballer. As of 2009, he is currently a consultant and presenter for Al-Jazeera Sports in Doha.
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
Physicist
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji is a French physicist and Nobel Laureate. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips for research in methods of laser cooling and trapping atoms. He is still an active researcher, working at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Cheb Bilal
Musical Artist
Cheb Bilal is a well-known raï singer. He was born on July 23, 1966 in Cherchel, Algeria.
Philippe Parreno
Author
Philippe Parreno is a French artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Paris, France. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Grenoble from 1983 until 1988 and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes en arts plastiques at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris from 1988 until 1989. Parreno rose to prominence in the 1990s, earning critical acclaim for his work, which employs a diversity of media including film, sculpture, performance, drawing and text. Taking the exhibition as a medium, Parreno has radically redefined the exhibition experience by exploring its possibilities as a coherent “object” rather than as a collection of individual works. To this end, he conceives his shows as a scripted space where a series of events unfolds. The visitor is guided through the galleries by the orchestration of sound and image, which heightens their sensory experience. This is a question of creating, in a given volume, as much space and time as possible by folding and unfolding the space onto itself. Parreno used this format in his 2012 exhibition, Dancing around the Bride at the Philadelphia Museum of Art which was curated by Carlos Basualdo in collaboration with Erica F. Battle. Acting as metteur-en-scène, Parreno activated the role of time and motion around the artworks of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp. At his eponymous 2010 exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, spectators moved in groups from room to room following a soundtrack.
Benyoucef Benkhedda
Politician
Benyoucef Benkhedda was an Algerian politician. He headed the third GPRA exile government of the National Liberation Front, acting as a leader during the Algerian War. At the end of the war, he was briefly the de jure leader of the country, however he was quickly sidelined by more conservative figures.
Ahmed Mekky
Actor
Ahmed Mekky is an Egyptian television and stage actor, writer, director, and rapper.
Jean Richepin
Novelist
Jean Richepin, French poet, novelist and dramatist, the son of an army doctor, was born at Médéa, French Algeria. At school and at the École Normale Supérieure he gave evidence of brilliant, if somewhat undisciplined, powers, for which he found physical vent in different directions—first as a franc-tireur in the Franco-German War, and afterwards as actor, sailor and stevedore—and an intellectual outlet in the writing of poems, plays and novels which vividly reflected his erratic but unmistakable talent. A play, L'Étoile, written by him in collaboration with André Gill, was produced in 1873; but Richepin was virtually unknown until the publication, in 1876, of a volume of verse entitled La Chanson des gueux, when his outspokenness resulted in his being imprisoned and fined for outrage aux mœurs. The same quality characterized his succeeding volumes of verse: Les Caresses, Les Blasphèmes, La Mer, Mes paradis, La Bombarde. His novels have developed in style from the morbidity and brutality of Les morts bizarres, La Glu and Le Pavé to the more thoughtful psychology of Madame André, Sophie Monnier, Cisarine, L'Aîné, Grandes amoureuses and La Gibasse, and the more simple portrayal of life in Miarka, Les Braves Gens, Truandailles, La Miseloque and Flamboche.
Julien Bertheau
Actor
Julien Bertheau was a French actor.
Krim Belkacem
Politician
Krim Belkacem was an Algerian revolutionary fighter and politician.
Ali Benflis
Politician
Ali Benflis is a politician from Algeria, former Prime Minister from 2000 to 2003. As of 2003, he is the general secretary of the National Liberation Front party. He was defeated in the Algerian presidential election of April 8, 2004 by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Sail Mohamed
Deceased Person
Sail Mohamed Ameriane ben Amerzaine was an Algerian and French anarchist who fought in the Spanish Civil War. The French writer Jacques Prévert dedicated a poem to him. Born in Kabylie, French Algeria, Sail Mohamed served in the French Colonial Forces. He was arrested for insubordination and desertion during the First World War. He then moved to France, where he was an activist in the Union Anarchiste and the Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire and was founder with his friend Sliman Kiouane of the Committee for the Defence of Indigenous Algerians, one of the first national liberation movements in French North Africa He was a passionate anti-Stalinist, rejecting support from the Red Aid, a front organisation of the French Communist Party, when he was prosecuted by the French authorities for an anti-militarist article. In 1936, he served in the Sébastien Faure Century, the French-speaking section of the Durruti Column, an anarchist anti-Francoist militia in Spain. In October 1936, he becomes the general delegate for foreign groups, replacing Bethomieu who died in Perdiguera. He was wounded in November and got back to France in December, after sending many letters describing the anarchist movement in Spain. As soon as he got better, he took part in the conferences organised by the Union Anarchiste on the realisation of the Spanish revolution.
Salah Assad
Soccer
Salah Assad is a former Algerian football striker and manager. He played for RC Kouba, where he won an Algerian tournament in 1981 and one African Cup Winner's Cup, and in France for FC Mulhouse and Paris Saint-Germain FC. For Algeria national football team, he participated at the 1980, 1982, and 1986 African Cup of Nations, 1980 Summer Olympics, and at two edition of FIFA World Cup in 1982 and 1986, scored two goals. Also footage shows that he was the first player to master the Flip flap, later made famous by Ronaldinho of Brazil. Assad currently holds the record of most scored goals at the World Cup for Algeria, which were both scored in the 1982 World Cup.
Mohammed Arkoun
Organization leader
Professor Mohammed Arkoun, was an Algerian scholar and thinker of Berber descent. He was born on February 1, 1928 and he died on September 14, 2010. He was considered to have been one of the most influential secular scholars in Islamic studies contributing to contemporary intellectual Islamic reform. In a career of more than 30 years, he had been a critic of the tensions embedded in his field of study, advocating Islamic modernism, secularism, and humanism. During his academic career, he wrote his numerous books mostly in French, and occasionly in English and Arabic. He appeared on numerous occasions on French TV and magazines, on Berbère Television channel speaking in Berber, and on Aljazeera TV speaking in Arabic.