Céline Bonnier

Born on 31st August 1965 in Lévis, a suburb to the south of Quebec City, Céline Bonnier was the youngest of eight children, six boys and two girls. The family was brought up in an exceptionally liberal, cultured environment by mother Raymonde and father Irénée, a public sector administrator and serving politician in the mid-1970s. Encouraged by her parents to develop her imaginative side, she was entertaining the neighbors to impromptu routines in the local playground from the age of seven, which is how she discovered the 'high' that persuaded her to become an actor. Music featured largely in family life; she studied it at high school in Sainte-Foy, and can play several instruments, including the transverse flute and the accordion. She and some of her brothers had a flair for art, and she still sketches as a form of self-expression and particularly appreciates the work of the great painters. But her talent for acting led her high school drama teacher to recommend that she audition for the Conservatoire de théâtre in Quebec.