is a French author and director.
In particular, he received the Grand Prize for Theater from the French Academy as well as, twice, the Molière for living French-speaking author.
Joël Pommerat discovered his passion for theater in college thanks to his French teacher, then, after leaving the school system early, when he attended the Avignon festival for the first time.
Renouncing to become a teacher as his father wished, he moved to Paris to become an actor. At 19, he was hired by the Théâtre de la Mascara company in Aisne. But the place of the actor seems ungrateful to him and, at 23, he decides to devote himself to writing.
He founded the Compagnie Louis Brouillard in 1990 and created his first shows at the Théâtre de la Main d'Or in Paris.
After ten years of work, renouncing the cinema to which he devoted three years through the writing of a screenplay and the production of short films, Pommerat decided to bring together a group of actors with whom to engage in the long term. to do shows. In 2003, on his fortieth birthday, he proposed to Saadia Bentaïeb, Agnès Berthon, Pierre-Yves Chapalain, Lionel Codino, Philippe Lehembre, Ruth Olaïzola and Marie Piemontese to stage with them one play per year for 40 years.
From 1997, he was accompanied and supported by the Théâtre de Brétigny and the Théâtre Paris-Villette.
From 2001, the Compagnie Louis Brouillard presented its shows on tour.
Au monde and Le Petit Chaperon rouge in 2004 marked a turning point in the recognition of his work, both from the public and from critics. From 2005 to 2008, he was in residence at Espace Malraux, the national stage of Chambéry and Savoie.
In 2007, Joël Pommerat returned to his artistic approach in the essay Théâtres en presence. At the invitation of Peter Brook, he was in residence at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord from 2007 to 2010.
From September 2010, he is an associate artist at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe. He is also an associate artist at the National Theater of Belgium until 2015.
In 2014, at the invitation of Philippe Quesne and Nathalie Vimeux, he joined the artists' association of the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers.
In 2016, he received the 13th Prix Europe Réalités Théâtrales in Craiova for his entire dramatic work.
Joël Pommerat defines himself as a “show writer”. He generally edits his own texts.
