Stéphane De Groodt is one of the VIP guests of the special 25th anniversary bonus of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” on TF1. Here are its secrets.
Stéphane De Groodt is back on stage with the play A slight doubt but, this September 27, it is on TF1 that we find him in Who wants to make millions? with Arthur.
Where does Stéphane De Groodt come from?
Stéphane De Groodt was born in 1966 in Brussels. He is the son of an engineer at Texaco and a housewife who takes care of disabled children. As pointed out Laughter and Songshis mother wanted to call him Caroline if he had been a girl… Dyslexic, he had a difficult schooling and, on top of that, his father was an alcoholic which made his childhood complicated. “Very early on, at 12 years old, I had to take his car because he wasn’t able to get home from the bar which was 10 minutes from our house. I learned to drive alone, we are gaining maturity. So I feel even more different from my friends. And then my parents separated“, he confided to Frédéric Lopez in A Sunday in the countryside.
Stéphane De Groodt began his career in an unexpected field: motorsport. He won the title of Belgian Champion in the BMW Compact Cup, but his true passion pushed him towards the arts. From his beginnings on local television, he was noted for his offbeat humor, creating the series Go to your room. He also lends his voice to commercials for brands like Carrefour, while pursuing roles in television series such as Joséphine, guardian angel And Don’t do this, don’t do that.
What did Stéphane De Groodt play in?
Stéphane De Groodt is a regular on film and theater sets. He has starred in films like Superchondriac, Asterix at the Olympic Games, Everyone has their own life, The game and more recently Big Bug And Champagne! On the theater side, we could see it in the plays The First Name, Whatever you want, Who is Mr Schmitt? and more recently A Slight Doubtan absurd and existential play that he wrote and in which he stars.
Many also know him for his wacky and offbeat columnist on the show The Supplement. In particular, he left Nabilla speechless because of a text that she did not understand!
Stéphane de Groodt: victim of harassment
In A Sunday in the countrysidehe explained that his school friends nicknamed him “the big load of soup” because of his physical appearance, then being the victim of school bullying. This mockery and criticism had a devastating effect on him, pushing him to withdraw into himself. “It conditioned my whole life afterwards,” he said, adding that these experiences pushed him to lose weight and pursue fields like auto racing and acting to reinvent himself and try to gain acceptance from others.
What do we know about the private life of Stéphane de Groodt?
On the private side, Stéphane De Groodt was married for several years to Odile d’Oultremont, a Belgian screenwriter and novelist. The couple, who married in 2014 after 14 years of dating, had two daughters, now aged 15 and 18. “My biggest failure would be to miss them. I’m not present enough, so I’m upset and frustrated. Children are a point of observation where we see how life passes by” , he confided to World.
In 2018, Stéphane revealed his separation from Odile d’Oultremont. Despite their breakup, the actor still affirmed that the family bond remains indestructible, stating that “We’re still a family, even though we’re not together anymore.”