Born in 1961 in Choisy-le-Roi on the outskirts of Paris, Tonino Benacquista grew up in a family of Italian immigrants. While studying cinema, he worked several jobs that he later used as backdrop for his first noir novels. Thus he became steward for the overnight trains company (he’d look back on that time in his novel La Maldonne des Sleepings), artwork hanger in a contemporary art gallery (Three Red Squares on Black Background) or even ‘society parasite’ (Les Morsures de l’Aube).

Today he divides his writing time between novels, short stories, theatre and cinema. While several of his books have been adapted for the big screen (Les Morsures de l’Aube by Antoine de Caunes, La Boite Noire by Richard Berry, L’Outremangeur by Thierry Binisti), he also writes scripts for feature films, particularly with Jacques Audiard (Sur mes Lèvres, De Battre mon Coeur s’est Arrêté) for which they’ve obtained several Césars (the French Academy Awards). The adaptation of Malavita by Luc Besson, with Robert de Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones, came out in October 2013.

In the field of comics, he collaborated with a number of artists: Ferrandez (L’Outremangeur), Barral (Dieu n’a pas Réponse à Tout), Loustal (Les Amours Insolentes), Bertrand (L’Amour Cash) as well as Berlion (Coeur Tam-tam), who adapted in BD form his novel La Commedia des Ratés. He also collaborated with Tardi on Le Serrurier Volant, an illustrated novel (Estuaire, 2006).

In 2010 first, then 2012, he co-wrote with Daniel Pennac the 74th and 75th Lucky Luke volumes: Lucky Luke contre Pinkerton (Lucky Luke versus the Pinkertons) and Cavalier Seul (Lone Riders), both drawn by Achdé. Published by Dargaud, both stories were met with critical and commercial success.

He also translated from English volume 1 of the series Parker, written and drawn by Cooke from a novel by Stark (Dargaud). After a fruitful collaboration with Florence Cestac (Des Salopes et des Anges, 2011), Tonino Benacquista began a new project with artist Nicolas Barral – Les Cobayes (Dargaud, 2013) – all the while continuing his career as a novelist, with the 2013 short story collection Nos Gloires Secrètes.