Born in Melun in 1966, Guillaume Nicloux was deeply affected at the age of 5 by Walt Disney's animated film Bambi. This first cinematic shock sparked his imagination: he began to draw and to write his own scripts.

After starting to study accounting, Guillaume Nicloux started his theatre company La Troupe at the age of 18. In 1990 his first film, The Flying Children (“Les Enfants Volants”), earned him film festival selections in Berlin and Toronto.

In 1994, despite positive reactions at Cannes to Happiness is No Joke (“Faut pas rire du bonheur"), the filmmaker, lacking cinematic inspiration, turned to literature and published several successful police novels, including the The Octopus and Zoocity series.

Since the 2000s, Guillaume Nicloux has created a unique cinema which transcends genres, from political films to quirky comedies, dramas, TV series and a film noir triptych – A Private Affair, Hanging Offense, The Key (“Une affaire privée", "Cette femme-là", La Clef”).