Cyril Hanouna

Cyril Valéry Hanouna (born 23 September 1974 in Paris) is a French radio and television presenter, writer, author, columnist, producer, singer and occasional actor and comedian of Tunisian origins.

He is the son of a general practitioner and a saleswoman arrived in France from Tunis in 1969. He first studied to become a doctor like his father. After having difficulties in high school, he decided to study management to become a chartered accountant but he gave up.

Cyril Hanouna started his life as an oddjob man taking on jobs such as monitor camps, bank employee, vendor fabrics and door to door.

Highlight

Hanouna made his debut on television in 1999 on the television channel Comédie+ where he wrote the lyrics for the trailers. Hanouna became a television presenter in 2002 when he co-hosted the third series of La Grosse Émission alongside comedian duo Kad et Olivier. In February 2002 he was approached by RTL Radio In 2002 he hosted a radio show called Planet Arthur alongside Emmanuel Levy & Valérie Bénaïm. In 2003 he hosted the morning show on Morning Live on M6.

Since 2008 he has been associated with the Eurovision Song Contest. At the 2008 Contest he presented the French tele-votes and then provided the French commentary for the 2009 & 2010 Contest alongside Julien Courbet & Stéphane Bern.

Currently he is a host on Europe 1 and on television with Touche Pas à Mon Poste (Don't touch my TV set) up to 2012 on France 4, before moving with the whole TV show team to D8 since the new channel has been launched on 7 October. The channel also bought the rights for Nouvelle Star, the French version of the Pop Idol Series, and Hanouna became the host of the show.

In 2011, he acted in the third installment of La Vérité si je mens !.

Nowadays he is producer of his own entertainment company « H2O Production », having in his hand most of the more important tv shows of C8 (as D8 was renamed), and active on almost all channels which are owned by Vincent Bolloré (Direct 8, Direct Star and Canal+). In 2015 Bolloré spent 250 millions Euros to keep Hanouna in his team.

Polemics

Many times Cyril Hanouna was rewarded by satirical awards Gérards de la Télévision: Industrial mistake award 2007, Worst presenter 2013 and 2014, The presenter who doesn't need drugs 2016. In February 2016, he is drawn as a mosquito sucking kids' brain by Charlie Hebdo.

He is described as an annoying clown, switching from hysterical chuckles to vulgarities, and is involved in several affairs such offering non existing gifts, ripping a book during the broadcast, humiliations against journalists and collaborators, sexist and homophobic jokes. In February 2016 two French journalists (Julien Cazarre and Arnaud Ramsay) reported that they received menaces from Hanouna as they were refusing to appear in his show. Society magazine did a long report about him, describing him as "tyrannical, pretentious, full of angriness" managing his team with "Scabrous practices", based on evidences coming from his own collaborators (nevertheless they were anonymously quoted). Stéphane Guillon, another presenter of Canal+, describes Hanouna as the "Kim Jong-Il of C8".

In November and December 2016, the Superior Council of Audiovisual launched two administratives procedures against Touche Pas a Mon Poste because of frequent humiliations, sexits and homophobic statements during the broadcast.

In December 2016, French association of LGBT journalists counted 42 sexists and homophobic jokes, and talks about him as an un-complexed promotor for homophobia.

Singles

• 2015 : The New Adventures of Aladdin
• 2016 : Pattaya
• 2016 : La vache

• 2013-2016 : Les pieds dans le plat on Europe 1