Adele Exarchopoulos, the French actress of Greek ancestry through her paternal great-grandfather, who rapidly rose to international prominence through her compelling performances and authentic screen presence, was born on 22 November 1993 in Paris, near the Place des Fêtes. Her father, Didier Exarchopoulos, passionate about music, and a former guitar teacher, is the Director of Public Concessions at Levy Restaurants, notably at the Accorhotels Arena, formerly known as the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, and also the President of the Paris based company 1660 Productions, while her mother Marina Niquet is a French nurse. The involvement in the world of music and cinema made the Exarchopoulos family home a true artistic hotbed, conducive to the blossoming of creative talent, and the couple always supported Adele to pursue her career as an actress.

Born into a creative household that embraced music and storytelling, Adele was admitted by her parents to attend acting lessons in the city at the early age of nine, as a means of overcoming her shyness, where she quickly fell in love with the magic of acting. During that time, she was spotted by an agent in 2005, and she made her first television appearance in an episode of the French police drama series R.I.S, police scientifique that began in 2006, followed by her debuting film Boxes (2007), in which she played the role of Lily, the youngest daughter of a middle-aged woman, Anna, played by Geraldine Chaplin.

Immediately after her debut, Adele enjoyed appearing in a steady stream of films which include Les enfants de Timpelbach (Trouble at Timpetill 2008), a French fantasy adventure film, in which she appeared as Marianne, La Rafle (The Round Up 2010), a French historical war drama film, and also in Tête de turc (Turk’s Head 2010), a thriller. The next year, she appeared in the comedy film Chez Gino (2011), as well as in Carré blanc (2011), followed by Pieces of Me (2012), in which she played the role of Erell, a teenage girl in a small French town having a strained relationship with her chronically ill mother.

However, the next year proved to be the most important year in her career in which apart from playing a minor role in I Used to Be Darker (2013), Adele Exarchopoulos appeared in the romantic drama film Blue Is The Warmest Colour (La vie d'Adèle 2013), in which she attracted international attention and earned critical acclaim for her fascinating performance in the role of one of the female leads of the film, also named Adele, and also created history as the youngest person in the history of the festival to win the coveted Palme d'Or Award. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, a Tunisian-French film director, and also starring Léa Seydoux, the film follows Adèle, a French teenager, whose life is changed when she meets Emma, a young female aspiring painter with blue hair, played by Seydoux, who helps her discover her passion and her identity as an adult woman. Although the film generated controversy for raw depiction of sexuality, it unanimously won the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and also created history as the first film to have the Palme d'Or awarded to both the director and the lead actresses, Léa Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos. Adele’s portrayal of the role was highly praised by the critics for its emotional depth and raw honesty and her performance was cited as one of the best in the year. For her performance in film, she also won the César award for the Most Promising Actress, as well as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress.

Following her international breakthrough, Adele continued to build a diverse and impressive portfolio of work in both French and global cinema, and starred in films like Insecure (Qui Vive 2014), a French drama film directed by Marianne Tardieu, screened at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Voyage vers la mèr (Journey to the Mother (2014), a French drama film, directed by Mikhail Kozyrev-Nesterov, and also appeared as Judith Lorillard, an aspiring teacher in the period drama film Les Anarchistes (2015), which was premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The next year, Adele appeared as Anna Ameri, a rebellious teenager, in the tragic prison drama film Down by Love (2016), depicting the reckless affair between a prison director and one of its female inmates, and also played the role of Sandra in the crime thriller Orphan (2016), premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. The same year Adele also starred alongside the South African-American actress Charlize Theron and the Spanish actor Javier Bardem in The Last Face (2016), an international project, directed by Sean Penn, which was premiered in competition section of the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

During this phase of her career, Adele purposefully designed to build a diverse and impressive collection of work showcasing her versatility, and appeared in Racer and the Jailbird (2017), a tragic crime drama, set against the background of a brutal crime gang in Brussels, depicting a love story between a gangster and Bibi, a young racing driver with very upper-class roots, portrayed by Adele. After that, she portrayed socialite Clara Saint in the biographical drama The White Cow (2018), chronicling the life and dance career of a ballet dancer, followed by Sibyl (2019), a psychological drama, playing the role of Margot Vasilis, a young actress wrapped up in a dramatic affair with her co-star. Her performances in the films earned her profuse critical appreciation and established her as a versatile actress.

The subsequent important films of Adele Exarchopoulos include Mandibles (2020), a critically acclaimed French-Belgian comedy film, for which she earned a nomination for the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. The next year, she starred the comedy drama Zero Fucks Given (2021), playing Cassandre Wassels, a young woman who recently lost her job as a flight attendant, and was again nominated for the César Award for Best Actress, followed by her appearance as Joanne Soler in the fantasy drama The Five Devils (2022). In 2023, Adele played the role of Agathe, a young woman who began a passionate affair with a married man, jeopardising his conjugal life, in the romantic film Passages (2023), and in the same year also appeared as Chloe Delarme, a victim of incestuous rape, in the French drama film All Your Faces (2023), and won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the role.

Apart from her successful acting career, Adele Exarchopoulos, a powerful example of talent and versatility, is also admired for her natural beauty and distinctive style, which made her a muse for the fashion designers and photographers alike. In her personal life, she began dating French actor Jérémie Laheurte in 2012, during the filming of Blue Is the Warmest Colour, but their relationship ended in 2015. In 2016, she began a relationship with French rapper Mamadou Coulibaly, popularly known by his stage name stage Doums, with whom she had a son in 2017, but they ended the relationship within five years and separated in 2021.