Born in Paris, Christophe’s first brush with performance was as a boy-alto, aged 8, with the choir “Les Petites Enfants à la Croix Brûlée” (The Little Children of the Burnt Cross).
Having caught the performance bug, he later formed a Musical Duo with a colleague, while stationed in New Caledonia with the French Army.
After the army, Christophe returned to Paris where he attended the prestigious Les Cours Simon Acting school before striking out to try his hand at many forms of performance, in France, Germany, and Senegal
(as a French Representative in a Cultural Exchange in 1995), Ireland, Malta & UK.
Moving to Ireland in 1997 led Christophe to working with Italian circus Il Florilegio, then auditioning for and becoming a member of the Society of Irish Magicians.
Specialising in Acting, Magic and Medieval Combat display, Christophe also studied Astrophysics, first with Maynooth University, and then with the Open University.
Since 2009 he has been the owner-operator of Trapdoor Entertainment and has seen the company grow from strength to strength. One highlight was the successful international tour over Christmas 2012, of his self written card based magic show “A La Carte”, working with his (then) fiancée (now wife), who designed and managed the show on tour.
2014-15 was a developmental period for Christophe. After some further education with an incredibly talented tutor in Dublin, Christophe focussed on developing new projects for the 2016 season and beyond. With a stage play at the devising stage, Christophe also launched a new initiative, “The Melting Pot”, which aims to work at a grass roots level to support performers of all levels, not only in a professional, but also a personal context. Primarily this work has taken the form of weekend workshops, but further projects are also being explored.
After a first foray into Musical Theatre, playing as Drake in the Mullingar Musical Society‘s production of “Annie” in October 2015, Christophe returned to the Mullingar Arts Centre for his first ever panto season, and appeared as Captain Morgan in Cinderella.
2016-17 was a consolidation period for Christophe. After appearing as Cú Chulainn’s fighting double for the Laochra commemoration at Croke Park, he appeared in several projects for both Irish Arms and Footsteps NI, took some time out for two family bereavements and to get married!
He closed out 2017 with 3 months spent in further professional development training with David Scott in Dublin.
In 2018 Christophe continued to appear regularly in Living History work, as well as supporting an Armistice commemoration event in UK appearing as a French soldier, a developmentally delayed young soldier, as well in his own right with one of his stand-up sets.
2019 got off to a flying start when in January Christophe was activated to cover the role of Macbeth on just 9 days notice. The production was met with critical acclaim.
This led to invitations to tour, starting in September.
Meanwhile in June, Christophe travelled to New York City to receive a Long Island Theatre Award on behalf of the company of Macbeth.
When the Covid19 Shutdown hit in March of 2020, many projects in production were brought to a sudden halt. Christophe took part in 11 digital theatre projects across the remainder of 2020, but also took time for a break, and to care for his family. He also began running D&D sessions online both socially and professionally.
2021 was a quiet time of slowly building back from the first cycle of Covid. Projects in that period included ‘Colmcille 1500 – Battle of the Books’ for
O Media and development work on a character workshop for D&D Ireland‘s forthcoming convention, currently on hiatus.
In late March of 2021, Christophe discovered that he is genderfluid and came out. Audrey, his feminine counterpart, joined the family and has begun to tentatively pursue a place for herself in the performance world.
In late 2022, recognising that current public safety measures against C19 are so poor as to make Magic performance (at the very least) too dangerous for families with vulnerable people, Christophe/Audrey put magic on hold and took a 12 months sabbatical in order to regroup, restrategise, and focus on The Melting Pot and on developing new work for further down the line, when working could be made safer.
He/She returned to performance with a bang in October 2023, co-starring with Jemma Curran, originating the role of ‘Wynn’ in ‘Again’ written by Liam Van Laere & Directed by Ellie Henry as part of Shite Productions’ 24hr challenge theatre event ‘Plays are SHITE’.
He/She lives in County Westmeath, Ireland, with his/her actor wife, her assistance dog & retired assistance dog, two cats, and rescued hens.
In rare moments of down time, he/she loves to cook and bake.
