Clémence Poésy

Clémence Poésy, born Clémence Guichard on 30 October 1982 in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, a southern suburb of Paris, is a French actress and fashion model who has worked across stage, film, and television in both French and English. The daughter of actor-writer Étienne Guichard and a French teacher, she adopted her mother's maiden name as her professional name. She attended La Source, a bilingual alternative school in Meudon, and upon leaving at age 16 pursued formal dramatic training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique, the Atelier International de Blanche Salant et Paul Weaver, and Paris Nanterre University. Her younger sister, Maëlle Poésy-Guichard, is also an actress.

Poésy began her screen career in 1999 and took on her first English-speaking role in the 2004 BBC miniseries Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, portraying Mary, Queen of Scots. That performance earned her the 2005 Golden FIPA for actress in a TV Series and Serial. The following year she joined the Harry Potter franchise, playing Fleur Delacour in The Goblet of Fire, a role she later reprised in both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In 2008 she starred in the Academy Award-nominated film In Bruges alongside Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, and Brendan Gleeson. Two years later she appeared with James Franco in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, which premiered at the 2010 Telluride Film Festival before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September 2010.

Additional screen credits include the 2007 miniseries War and Peace, in which she played Natasha Rostova; the 2009 film Heartless opposite Jim Sturgess; the fourth season of Gossip Girl, in which she played Eva; and the 2011 romantic drama Lullaby for Pi alongside Rupert Friend and Forest Whitaker. She also worked with Michael Caine in Mr. Morgan's Last Love. Beginning in 2013, Poésy starred as Elise Wassermann in The Tunnel, a Sky Atlantic and Canal+ co-production that ran for 24 episodes across three series. In 2019 she played Yelena in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Theatre Royal in Bath, and in 2024 she portrayed Matilda of Flanders in the period drama King & Conqueror. She also appeared as the lead in the music video for M. Ward's 2020 single "Unreal City," directed by Beatrice Pegard and filmed in Paris.

In 2012, Poésy made her Broadway debut in Cyrano de Bergerac, playing Roxane. The production marked her entry into American theater following a career that had begun on stage in childhood.

Alongside her acting work, Poésy has had a sustained modeling career. She has appeared on the covers of i-D, Jalouse, Yen, and Nylon, and since October 2007 has served as one of three spokesmodels for Chloé's self-titled fragrance. She modeled in Gap's 2008 autumn advertising campaign, was named the face of G-Star Raw in December 2011, and in 2014 became the poster figure for Chloé's "Love Story" fragrance. She is also featured on the track "Happenstance" from Miles Kane's album Colour of the Trap.

Poésy is fluent in French and English and speaks some Italian and Spanish. She divides her time between Paris and London. In 2015 she was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. She gave birth to a son in early 2017, was pregnant with her second child during the filming of Tenet in 2019, and was expecting her third child at the 2021 Deauville American Film Festival.