Bruni Tedeschi was born in Turin, Italy, in the Piedmont region of Italy, the daughter of Marisa Borini and Alberto Bruni Tedeschi. Like her younger sister, Carla Bruni, she has settled in France. The girls were raised bilingually, as their family moved to Paris in 1973, fearing kidnappings and, later, the terrorism of the Red Brigades.
Bruni Tedeschi trained in drama at Jean Darel and the American Center with Blanche Salant before joining Patrice Chéreau’s École des Amandiers in Nanterre in the early 1980s. She made her television debut in 1983 in Paolina, la juste cause et la bonne raison, and the same year appeared on stage in Platonov, directed by Chéreau. Her first significant film role came in Hôtel de France (1987), also directed by Chéreau.
Over the following decades, Tedeschi became known for a body of work spanning over 85 films, television productions, and stage performances. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress in 1994 for her role in Les gens normaux n'ont rien d'exceptionnel (1993). She has frequently collaborated with filmmaker Noémie Lvovsky, appearing in more than ten of her works since 1990.
Her performances include roles in La Reine Margot (1994), Nénette et Boni (1996), Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train (1998), and La parola amore esiste (1998). In Italian cinema, she has worked with directors such as Marco Bellocchio, Mimmo Calopresti, and Gabriele Muccino. Her later notable roles include 5×2 (2004), A Castle in Italy (Un château en Italie, 2013), which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Les Estivants (2018). In 2014, she won the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival for her performance in Paolo Virzì’s Human Capital (Il capitale umano).
Tedeschi's debut film as a director, It's Easier for a Camel..., earned her two awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003, for Emerging Narrative Filmmaker and Best Actress. The film was also awarded the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film in 2003, and won an award at the Ankara Flying Broom Women's Film Festival in 2004. It was entered into the 25th Moscow International Film Festival.
At the 2005 Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, Bruni Tedeschi appeared to promote two films she had acted in: Tickets (2005), a three-segment film directed by Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, and Ken Loach, and Crustacés et Coquillages, a comedy directed by the French duo of Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau.
In 2007, Bruni Tedeschi directed Actrices, which won the Prix Spécial du Jury at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Her 2022 film Les Amandiers (Forever Young) also premiered in the main competition of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
