Thomas Ngijol

1978-10-30 · Paris, France

Thomas Ngijol (born October 30, 1978 in Paris) is a French comedian, actor, and director. A stand-up specialist, he became known to the general public through his work with the Jamel Comedy Club. The son of Gilbert Ngijol, a Cameroonian sociologist, and Crescence Ngijol, a nurse, he was born in Paris and grew up in Maisons-Alfort, in the Val-de-Marne region of Paris. In the 2000s, he worked as a facilitator at the Aimé et Eugénie Cotton primary school in Bonneuil-sur-Marne, in the Val-de-Marne region. He then met Dieudonné while participating in the café-théâtre classes given at the Théâtre de la Main d'Or in Paris. He was noticed at the Juste pour rire festival in Nantes with a special tribute to Richard Pryor. He then performed for a while at the Moloko in Paris. He wrote a one-man show called Bienvenue, which he performed in small Parisian venues before being noticed by Kader Aoun. The latter opened the doors of the Jamel Comedy Club for him. He will be featured in a comedy produced and directed by Alex Alabaz of the Kourtrajmé collective, Les Abyssiens. He also became known on television on Canal+, in the show Le Grand Journal, with a daily column for two seasons (2006-2008). His most famous sketches are Un Superman noir!, Les jeux olympiques d'hiver?, Le Bac and Mon retour du Cameroun!. In September 2008, he joined Stéphane Bern's show Le Fou du roi, on France Inter. In 2010, during the Football World Cup, he presented the show Ils se foot du monde, with Darren Tulett, on the Comédie! channel. In October 2010, he directed his first film with his colleague and accomplice Fabrice Éboué, entitled Case départ, a popular comedy about slavery, a theme rarely treated in this way in French cinema, set in the West Indies. He is also one of the main actors and the screenwriter. This film, a theatrical success, was "a pleasant surprise" according to the French media. At the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, he was named patron of the Youth Prize. In February 2014, the comedy Le Crocodile du Botswanga was released in theaters, in which he played one of the main roles with Fabrice Éboué, who directed the film; it was again a success. In July 2014, he directed, wrote the screenplay for, and starred in his own film, the comedy FastLife. The name of the main character, Ebagué, is a reference to his name in Cameroon. His partner, actress Karole Rocher, gave birth to a daughter, Angelina, in May 2014, just before the film's release.