Roman Kolinka is a French actor and restaurateur born on September 16, 1986, in Paris, France.
As the eldest son of the renowned actress Marie Trintignant and musician Richard Kolinka, the drummer for the iconic rock band Téléphone, he grew up immersed in the worlds of cinema and music.
His maternal grandparents were the celebrated actor-director Jean-Louis Trintignant and filmmaker Nadine Trintignant, while his paternal grandmother, Ginette Kolinka, was a Holocaust survivor who endured Auschwitz and later became a prominent witness to the deportation horrors.
Kolinka’s early life was marked by profound loss when his mother died tragically in 2003 at the age of 41, an event that thrust him into the public eye at just 17.
Despite this, he has carved out a career blending artistic pursuits with entrepreneurial ventures, including owning a restaurant in the picturesque town of Uzès, where he lives with his partner Yoko Mollaret and their son Marlo.
Siblings
Roman shares a close yet complex bond with his three half-brothers, all from his mother’s subsequent relationships.
His next sibling, Paul Cluzet, born in 1988, is the son of Trintignant and actor François Cluzet; Paul has pursued a low-profile life away from the spotlight, occasionally appearing in family gatherings but largely maintaining privacy.
Léon Othnin-Girard, born in 1995 to Trintignant and Swiss director Mathias Othnin-Girard, was only eight years old when his mother passed, and he has chosen to remain out of the public eye entirely, focusing on a personal path untainted by the family’s fame.
The youngest, Jules Benchetrit, arrived in 1997 as the child of Trintignant and director Samuel Benchetrit; Jules has followed in the family’s cinematic footsteps, emerging as an actor with notable roles that have even pitted him against Roman in award competitions, such as the César nominations.
Career
Kolinka’s entry into acting was almost predestined, given his lineage, but he approached it with deliberate caution, debuting at age 14 in the 2000 TV miniseries Colette, une femme libre, directed by his grandmother Nadine Trintignant, where he shared the screen with his mother in one of her final roles.
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This early exposure fueled his passion, leading to his first major feature appearance in 2007’s I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster, a quirky crime comedy that showcased his natural screen presence.
He continued building credits with supporting parts in films like Love Crime (2010), Alain Corneau’s tense thriller, and Juliette (2013), while also working as an assistant director on the former.
A pivotal collaboration began in 2014 with director Mia Hansen-Løve, who cast him in Eden, a vibrant chronicle of the French electronic music scene inspired by her brother’s life, allowing Kolinka to tap into his father’s rock heritage through pulsating nightclub sequences.
This partnership deepened with Things to Come (2016), where he portrayed the son of Isabelle Huppert’s philosophy professor, earning praise for his subtle emotional depth in a story of midlife reinvention.
Hansen-Løve then handed him a lead role in Maya (2018), an introspective drama about a war reporter grappling with trauma, which premiered at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and solidified his reputation as a thoughtful performer.
Beyond cinema, Kolinka has balanced his career with entrepreneurship, opening the restaurant La Famille in Uzès in 2016 alongside Yoko, blending childhood comfort foods with Asian influences from their travels—a venture that reflects his desire for grounded family life amid acting’s uncertainties.
Recent works include Other People’s Children (2019), And Yet We Were All Blind (2020), and Toi non plus tu n’as rien vu (2023), alongside TV appearances in Disparition inquiétante.
Though he supplements income with restaurant work, Kolinka’s selective filmography reveals a craftsman honing his voice, often drawn to stories of personal upheaval that mirror his own resilient journey.
Accolades
In 2017, Kolinka received a César nomination for Most Promising Actor for Things to Come, a Silver Bear-winning film at the Berlin International Film Festival, where his portrayal of a grieving yet supportive son opposite Isabelle Huppert was lauded for its raw authenticity and emotional restraint.
This nod placed him in direct, familial competition with half-brother Jules Benchetrit, also nominated in the category for Chacun pour tous, underscoring the Trintignant legacy’s dual-edged sword of inspiration and pressure.
Maya further elevated his profile, earning him the Best Actor award at the 2018 Cabourg Romantic Film Festival, where critics celebrated his lead turn as an introspective journalist confronting moral ambiguities in post-war Georgia.
Additional recognition includes praise from directors like Olivier Assayas, who spotted his potential in Something in the Air (2012), and Hansen-Løve, who has described his innate ease before the camera as a “familial gift” tempered by self-doubt.
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