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Diaspo # 20: Karim Duval, an engineer and a talented humorist

Karim Duval was born in Aix-en-Provence. Son of a French-Moroccan father and a Chinese mother, he grew up in Fez, which he left when he turned 18 years old to pursue his studies in France. After an irreproachable academic career, Karim Duval, an engineer, exchanged his very technical profession to become a humorist. Portrait of a multicultural and passionate artist.

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Karim Duval, is today a humorist. Son of a French-Moroccan father and a Chinese mother, he grew up in Fez. Living a radiant childhood filled with experiences, Karim knows no borders. «It's a real opportunity to have grown up in such a diverse environment at all times,» he says.

Enrolled in a French school, he continued his studies until the age of 18. «I got my high school diplima in 1999, then I went straight up to Paris for college,» he told Yabiladi. A brilliant pupil, he joined the Lycée Sainte-Geneviève in Versailles where he begins preparatory classes for the grandes écoles (CPGE). Two years later, he managed to join the Ecole Centrale de Paris (ECP), and became an engineer.



A brilliant journey, which led him to the Côte-d'Azur, where he worked as an engineer in computer science and applied mathematics. «I worked for seven years in southern France, I lived very comfortably,» he recalled. In addition to his job, Karim took improvisation classes in Antibes, where he was domiciled at the time, «I discovered the incredible pleasure of writing sketches and making people laugh», he said with an enthusiastic vioce.

Inhabited by his new passion : Laughter

Working during the day, and devoting himself to his future comedy career in the evenings and during the weekends, these weeks were very organized with drama classes. Working hard, Karim was dreaming of seeing his project come true : «I was eager to see what my new sketch was about to go,» he says.

Inspired by his particular story, and his unusual journey, the French-Chinese-Moroccan humorist managed to make his way slowly but surely to the world of entertainment. Thus, between 2010 and 2011, he has been going to Antibes, Nice, Lyon and Paris. Months of hard work led him to many awards at festivals. In 2012, he finally presented his first one-man-show, entitled «Mutually agreed», at the Festival d'Avignon, the most important event of theater and live performance in France.



Some time later, Karim Duval met the director of Léon Vitale. The two men worked together on the show «Melting Pot», where Karim goes in search of his origins and embarks on a journey from North to South and East to West. Thus, he embodies the character of a Romanian music teacher, a Moroccan undocumented athlete «J.O. of Gibraltar», and a salesman.

Morocco inspires the artist enormously. In fact, he lived there from early childhood until he was eighteen. «Morocco inspires me a lot, I lived there all my childhood and it represents to a large extent my identity», says the one who had a huge success at the scene at the Megarama cinema in Casablanca. «I feel very very free on stage in Morocco, the Moroccan public is very plural,» he says.

Karim Duval, the Youtuber

Since 2016, the multicultural artist had a passion for Youtube. «I have recently started a Youtube channel,» he said. The short videos show Karim in Podcast, on stage, or trying out cooking recipes, all wrapped in a very offbeat humor.

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