Over the years, he has become a true national icon (he is included in the new Top 50 of French people’s favorite personalities) and yet… he is not French! Gad Elmaleh therefore explained, in the show 8:30 p.m. Sunday (France 2) of December 5, 2025, why he lived in France without having its nationality.
Born in Casablanca (Morocco) and having held Canadian nationality since the 1990s, the 53-year-old artist questioned the complexity of French administrative procedures: “I don’t have French citizenship but it’s not by conviction, he assured […] I started the process a long time ago and it was so much work that I gave up.”
“No need to become French to be loved”
He then explained that the situation, overall, did not displease him: “I liked the idea of being an immigrant in France for whom things are going very well and who lives the life of the French, who has no no need to become French to be loved, appreciated, helped initially by the French,” he argued.
Our “Gad Elmaleh” file
However, Gad Elmaleh had revealed to La Tribune Sundayat the end of June 2024, that although he held a residence permit and paid his taxes in France, he did not have a voter’s card. And if he had therefore not been able to slip a ballot into the ballot boxes during the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7, 2024, that did not prevent him from “wondering who he would vote for”.
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