Portraits of Our Community: Oriane Playner, Class of 2015

This week, as part of our series, "Oui" are the Lycée: Portraits of our Community, we are delighted to learn more about Oriane Playner, an LFC alumna from the class of 2015. A Franco-American, Oriane joined the Lycée in 2003 as a first grader. After moving to Colombia for her tenth grade year, she rejoined the IB program in eleventh and twelfth grade, and graduated from the LFC in 2015.

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Tell us more about yourself.

I'm a freelance director, producer and actress currently based out of Paris but was raised in Chicago by a French family. My dream had always been to eventually go back to France and get to know the culture, my family and, most importantly, the food!

After having graduated from Syracuse University in 2019, I moved back to Chicago and worked in the TV show industry thanks to my mentor Lisa Masseur. The first show I got to work on was Work in Progress produced by Lily Wachowski. This was a game changer for me. From there, she had set the bar high for what to expect as a creative in the film industry.

Two years later, mid pandemic, I made the move to France. It wasn't easy but I managed thanks to the support of friends & family.

Why was the Lycée a good fit for you? 

I'm so thankful for the education I received at LFC. As a kid, I struggled a lot academically, it wasn't always easy for me. Especially when it came down to math, science and physics.

I always loved history, languages, art and sports though so luckily I focused on "excelling" in those classes.

What really changed the way I viewed my courses though was once I moved back from Colombia and joined the IB Program. We were the first graduating class of 5 students. Therefore, our teachers pushed us and made sure that we were getting the best results possible. A big thank you to Sebastien Tourlouse for always inspiring confidence and a strong work ethic to the students that he works with. I wouldn't be where I am today without his help!

Tell us something about you that would surprise our readers.

I lived in Cali, Colombia for a year and half when I was 14 and 15 and I think that had a huge impact on not only my social interactions with people but also on my outlook in life. It made me more open to have deeper conversations and connections with people which has immensely helped me not only in my personal life but professional life as well. The film industry is all about who you know and how good you are at networking so social skills beyond the surface level conversations are oh so very important!

More recently, I had created a production company with a business partner in France that I actually called out of after 8 months. It wasn't lucrative & I didn't feel like I was truly growing to my fullest potential. Thankfully, after having decided to do so, I started working freelance again as a producer and actress mainly and the biggest job opportunities starting coming my way.

I recently worked on two huge commercial campaigns for Samsung as an actress which I had the opportunity to shoot in Barcelona and Madrid! I then got to production coordinate two commercials for Nike and work with the legendary Mbappé. At the moment, I'm currently still in negotiation on a project for my biggest production job to date which would be filmed with my favorite actor. I can't say who it is yet but one thing I can say is never give up on yourself. Fight for what you want in life. Take the difficult risks because they do eventually pay off! And remember to be kind.

* Note: If you are interested in being featured in the "Oui" are the Lycée: Portraits of our Community series, please contact communications@lyceechicago.org.