Cyril Raffaelli is an actor, stunt performer and acrobat from France. At the moment, Raffaelli has taken part in more than thirty films as a stuntman, and in fourteen as an actor. In particular, Cyril played one of the main roles in Pierre Morel's action movie "District 13".
Passion for martial arts and acrobatics
Cyril Raffaelli was born on April 1, 1974. It is known that he is not the only child in the family; he has two more older brothers. It was under their influence that Cyril became interested in martial arts at the age of six.
Raffaelli began his studies with mastering nunchaku and learning such a karate style as shotokan. After some time, the capable young man already took part in various championships, where he showed good results.
At the age of thirteen, Cyril began to study acrobatics at the French circus school Fratellini, and after a while he became a professional instructor in oriental martial arts.
First acting work
In 1991, Raffaelli first appeared on stage - in the musical "Les precieuses". To perform in this musical at the proper level, Cyril had to attend additional acting lessons. His acrobatic skills were also useful to him on stage.
For a while, Raffaelli, in order to gain experience, starred in promotional videos (for example, in commercials for Canon and Citroen). In parallel, he continued to train hard and mastered new types of martial arts for himself - wushu and kung fu.
The year 1997 became important for Cyril's biography. This year Cyril won the Kyokushin Karate World Cup, and also made his first film appearance as an actor - in the comedy "It's True If I Lie!" (however, he was not credited).
Then, from 2000 to 2003, he played several more minor film roles: in Taxi 2, he played a judo instructor, in Adventures of a Corpse, a thief, in Carrier, one of those fighting during a fight in a car fleet, and in the film "Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra" - a Roman legionnaire.
Role in the film "13th District" and further work
In 2004, Cyril was invited to one of the main roles in the fantastic action movie Pierre Morel based on the script of the famous Luc Besson "13th District". Here Cyril played a special forces officer Damien Tomaso, who has to carry out a dangerous mission - to defuse a neutron bomb. This role became one of the most important in Raffaelli's career.
It is worth noting that on the set of District 13, Cyril had a chance to work with the creator of the world parkour movement, David Belle. Subsequently, David and Cyril became friends.
It is interesting that Raffaelli in the 2000s managed to become not only an actor, but also a sought-after director of film stunts. Cyril's team has worked in this capacity in films such as Transporter 2, The Hitman, The Incredible Hulk, Die Hard 4.0, The Man in the Iron Mask, Ronin, Jeanne d'Arc, Michel Vaillant: Need for Speed. And in the film by Dwight Little based on the series of games of the same name "Tekken" (2009), Cyril was the main director of all the fights.
Also in 2009, Cyril Raffaelli took part in the film "District 13: Ultimatum", the sequel to the 2004 film. Here he again played the role of Damien Tomaso.
In 2011, Cyril tried his hand at being a screenwriter - he wrote a script for the Turkish action movie Kara-Murat: Fire of the Seas. And in 2013, he came to Russia to stage stunts for a film about rappers "Gas Holder: Film".
In recent years, Raffaelli has hardly appeared on the screen as an actor. However, it is worth mentioning that in 2017 he starred in a cameo in the Indian film Gentleman, and in 2018 in the American superhero series Titans."
