Early Life
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in an immigrant neighborhood Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris to an Algerian father from Constantine, Algeria.
In an interview in 1985, Adjani explained why her mother Augusta used to say her husband, Mohammed Cherif Adjani, was of Turkish origin as she was ashamed of his Algerian origin. She also asked him to change his first name to Cherif as it sounded more "American". Mohammed Cherif Adjani, was a soldier in the French Army in World War II. Her mother Augusta, called "Gusti", was German.
Adjani grew up bi-lingual, speaking German and French fluently.
After winning a school recitation contest, Adjani began acting in amateur theater by the age of twelve.
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