| Ruben Alves | |
| Birth Date: | 9 January 1980 |
| Birth Place: | Paris, France |
| Years Active: | 2000–present |
Ruben Alves (born 9 January 1980) is a French-Portuguese actor, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for The Gilded Cage which he wrote and directed.[1]
Alves was born the son of Portuguese guest workers in Paris. At 20, he became a full-time actor and initially played minor roles in French television productions and in some short films.[2]
His directorial debut, apart from a short film in 2002 'À l'abri des regards indiscrets', was in 2013 with the immigrant comedy La cage dorée. The film was inspired by his parents' biography,[3] and Alves has a small guest role in the film as 'Miguel'. The movie has been a great success in France and Portugal, and has also been followed by a number of other countries, including Australia.[2] In Portugal, it became in 2013 the most watched film of the year, with 755 000 viewings.[4] In Germany he came as Portugal, mon amour in the cinemas. The film had 1.2m spectators in France and sold well internationally.[5]
Alves played in 2014 in Yves Saint Laurent, a biopic about the life of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.[6] [7]
In 2017, he directed a documentary As Vozes do Fado (or "The Voices of Fado") with Christophe Fonseca, screened at the Le Lincoln Cinema, Paris.[8] A CD "Amália: Vozes do Fado" was released later, a homage to Amália Rodrigues, a Fado singer.[9]
In 2018, he started working on an upcoming comedy called Miss, by producer-director Hugo Gelin with co-star model Alex Wetter as a young man who sets his heart on winning the Miss France contest.[5]
In 2017, he currently lives in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, where he used to take holidays when living in Paris.[10]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | La vie sans secret de Walter Nions (Short) | Frère Diane |
| 2002 | À l'abri des regards indiscrets (Short) | Pierre-Cyril |
| 2004 | La chepor (Short) | Vendeur boutique 1 |
| Pédale dure | Fripounet | |
| 2005 | Un truc dans le genre | Youssef |
| 2006 | Madame Irma | Le serveur gastrologique |
| 2008 | Secrets of State | La nouvelle recrue |
| 2013 | The Gilded Cage | Miguel |
| 2014 | Yves Saint Laurent | Fernando Sanchez |
| 2015 | Tales from the Circus (Short) | Will |
| 2016 | Two Is a Family [11] | Serveur soirée |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Madame le proviseur | (unnamed role) | TV series, 1 episode |
| 2004 | Même âge, même adresse | (unnamed role) | TV series, 1 episode |
| 2005 | Clara Sheller | Hervé | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 2006 | Le juge est une femme | Sébastien | TV series, 1 episode |
| C com-ç@ | Florian | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 2008 | Les Bougon | (unnamed role) | TV series, 1 episode |
| 2009 | La fille au fond du verre à saké | Joaquim | TV series, 1 episode |
| 2010 | Maison Close | Policier #1 | TV series, 2 episodes |
| Empreintes criminelles | Robert | TV series, 1 episode | |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2002 | À l'abri des regards indiscrets (Short) |
| 2013 | The Gilded Cage |
| 2017 | As Vozes do Fado (Documentary)[12] |
| 2020 | Miss |