Vanessa Paradis

Vanessa Paradis is a French singer and actress who has successfully made the transition from child stardom to a respected adult career. She is also known for being the long-term partner of Johnny Depp

Vanessa Chantal Paradis was born on December 22, 1972, in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de-Marne, France. She loved singing even as a tiny child and was discovered by the television show L'École Des Fans which led to the release of her first single, "La Magie des Surprises-Parties," when she was just twelve years old. Although it wasn't a huge hit, it did attract favorable attention, and two years later her uncle, Didier Pain, produced "Joe le Taxi," her breakthrough single.

An international hit, it held the promise of stardom, but sadly the album it was taken from was not a success outside France. Paradis decided that she would have to learn English if she was to succeed in the mass market. But first she had other ambitions - to make her way in the world of film.

In 1989, Paradis starred opposite Bruno Cremer as the bright student inadvertently seducing her philosophy teacher in Noce Blanche. The film was a big hit in France and Paradis's performance won her a César award for Most Promising Actress. She subsequently had offers of work from Pedro Almodóvar and John Boorman, but turned them down in order to get back to making music.

At the age of nineteen, after the release of the moderately successful Variations sur la Même T'aime, Paradis moved to America and began dating Lenny Kravitz, who helped her to record her third album, Vanessa Paradis, entirely in English. She followed this up with a live album, then set aside music for a few years to make another film. This was Jean Becker's, in which her performance drew high praise from co-star Gérard Depardieu.

She followed it up with roles in further films including Un Amour de Sorcière, with Gil Bellows, Jeanne Moreau, and Jean Reno; Une Chance sur Deux, with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon; and Mon Ange, with Vincent Rottiers and Eduardo Noriega. In 2005 she lent her vocal talents to the French big-screen version of The Magic Roundabout.

Besides acting and singing, Paradis has enjoyed a successful career as a model, famously mimicking a bird in a gilded cage for Coco Chanel. She has appeared on several magazine covers and has also promoted Chanel handbags. Paradis returned to the world of music in 2001 with the album, followed by a return to singing in French on. She is currently recording her seventh album.

In 1998, Paradis bumped into film star Johnny Depp in a hotel lobby in Paris, where he was filming Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate. The two hit it off immediately and soon moved in together.

They have homes in Hollywood Hills, Paris, and Manhattan as well as a farm in southern France; and they have two children, Lily-Rose and Jack. Protective of their privacy, they are now planning a move to Lymington, England, in order to enjoy a quieter life and obtain a good education for their children.

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