On n'est pas couché
On n'est pas couché was a French talk show broadcast on France 2 on Saturdays at 11 p.m., hosted by Laurent Ruq...
Acting
Biyouna (بيونة), whose real name was Baya Bouzar (باية بوزار), was an Algerian actress, singer, and dancer born on September 13, 1952, in Belcourt, a working-class neighborhood of Algiers, and died on November 25, 2025, at the Beni Messous Hospital in Algiers, at the age of 73, from lung cancer. A major figure in Maghrebi culture, she is remembered as a free-spirited, popular artist deeply attached to Algeria.
Born into a family where music played a significant role, particularly through her sister, the singer Leïla El Djazaïria, Biyouna developed a passion for singing, dancing, and acting at a very young age. As a teenager, she first joined Fadela Dziria's troupe, where she sang in the choir and played percussion, before forming her own group with which she performed at weddings and popular festivals in Algiers. By seventeen, she was already performing in the capital's cabarets, before becoming a dancer at the famous Copacabana at nineteen, which brought her to the attention of the artistic community.
Her acting career began in the early 1970s when director Mustapha Badie spotted her and gave her the role of Fatma in the television series La Grande Maison, adapted from the novel by Mohammed Dib. This first major role made her instantly popular with the Algerian public and opened the doors of television and film for her, where her fiery temperament, humor, and outspokenness became her trademark. She then distinguished herself by alternating between melodramas, comedies, and one-woman shows, establishing herself as a key figure on Algerian television.
From the late 1990s onward, Biyouna's career took off in France, notably with the film *Le Harem de Madame Osmane*, followed by *La Voisine* and *Viva Laldjérie*, which brought her to the attention of a wider audience. In 2007, she captivated audiences in *Délice Paloma*, where she portrayed Madame Aldjéria, a charismatic mafia matriarch, a role often considered one of the highlights of her filmography. Her singular presence, her deep voice, and her ability to blend tragedy and comedy made her a sought-after actress for numerous directors on both sides of the Mediterranean.
At the same time, Biyouna pursued a successful musical career, releasing the album Raid Zone in the early 2000s, followed by Une blonde Dans La Casbah, projects blending Algerian influences with contemporary Franco-Algerian arrangements. She also participated in musical productions such as Fellag's Casbah Opera and lent her voice to various projects. She also became a star of television series, notably with Nass Mlah City, broadcast during Ramadan, and the Tunisian series Nsibti Laaziza, where her colorful characters left a lasting impression on Maghrebi audiences.
The last years of her life were overshadowed by illness, lung cancer, which she battled for several years and which was regularly discussed in the Algerian and French media. She passed away on November 25, 2025, in Algiers, at the Beni Messous hospital, after her health deteriorated due to respiratory complications. She leaves behind a career spanning more than half a century and immense popularity, a symbol of a free, audacious, funny, and moving female artist who navigated the changing times without ever abandoning her personality or her language, moving seamlessly between Algerian Darija, colloquial Arabic, and French.
Browse movies and TV shows featuring Biyouna
On n'est pas couché was a French talk show broadcast on France 2 on Saturdays at 11 p.m., hosted by Laurent Ruq...
The program combines comedy, celebrity, musical guests, and human-interest stories.
When a childhood friend from Miami gets killed after he comes to warn of encroaching drug gangs, Baaba moves to...
In 1939 in eastern Algeria, Omar, a young boy of ten, lives with his family in a room in Dar Sbitar, a house sh...
A comedy/drama set in a village and centered on a battle of the sexes, where women threaten to withhold sexual...
The series takes place in the popular Bab El Oued neighborhood in Algeria, a neighborhood where drug traffickin...
More than anything, 30-year-old Rose longs to be reunited with Mickaël, her estranged 11-year-old son who has b...
Α tragi-comedy about 9 women of different ages and various backgrounds that gather in an Algerian hammam to tal...
The simple humorous life of Hassouna a real estate agent living peacefully with his wife Hayet, where his story...
Nass Mlah City is a 2002-2006 Algeria comedy TV series directed by Djafar Gacem and broadcast by ENTV. It first...
Three brothers are reunited on the occasion of the death of his mother. The three are in a difficult stage of t...
A few miles from Paris, on the other side of the northern ring road, stands a ghetto neighborhood with countles...
After a crazy and tumultuous night embellished with singular encounters, Michel's awakening is brutal and painf...
In 2008, Sami Benboudaoud discovered the hell of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Ten years later, now that everything is for...
This movie portrays three women living in today's Algeria between modern society and Islamic fundamentalism, se...
The writer Louis Gardel remembers his youth in Algeria. In 1955, Louis is 15 years old and lives with his grand...
Amelle and Noom are two young thirties are total opposites and that fate will bring. Serious She manager at Sta...
One morning Noureddine, who always considered himself a little boy, discovers that his mother Fatima lied to hi...
Djalil Boudaoud and Justine Lacroix are a surgeon and a television reporter who enter a romantic relationship d...
Atop 17 flights of stairs, Madame Aldjeria rules over a crew of beautiful young women with the help of faithful...
In Algiers in 1993, while the civil war is starting, Mrs Osmane's tenants have to endure her bad temper. Her hu...
30-year-old Djemila, a single jurist, at last has her own apartment... a few steps away from her parents' place...
Le match France - Algérie vient chambouler le train-train de Brahim et Mouloud. Cet évènement va diviser les de...
Sira, a former refugee, works as a translator for OFPRA (the French Office for the Protection of Stateless Pers...
While trying by all means to stay out of the bloody turmoil caused by the Battle of Algiers, Hassan, an honest...
The story of Algerian women trying to live in 1970s Algeria where the society is between conservative values an...
Rid of her rival Gloria, Aïcha will do everything to make her boss proud, with Ginette's help. Patrick presents...
The former teammate of the famous Inspector Tahar, "the Apprentice" turned Inspector Yahia, will conduct his fi...
Véra Bellini fights with her psychic friends for their gift to be recognized by medicine. But her opponent Doct...
The daily life and tribulations of colorful residents in the millennial popular district of the Casbah of Algie...
An ensemble piece set in a North African neighbourhood in Toulon.