Originally from a coastal village in the Province of Barcelona, ​​Sergi Lopez took comedy and circus classes in Spain as a teenager, before enrolling in Paris at the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School, whose teaching focuses on bodywork. This is where Manuel Poirier noticed him, looking for an actor with a Spanish accent for "La Petite Amie d'Antonio", an endearing work and the first step in a long collaboration between the filmmaker and the Catalan actor.

Indeed, the two men presented the Bigouden road movie "Western" at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival and then met up regularly, notably for "Te quiero" in 2000, "Les Femmes… ou les enfants d'abord…" in 2001 and "La Maison" in 2007, in which the actor played a father in the process of getting a divorce. Funny and warm, this atypical Latin lover is sought after by directors such as Corsini ("La Nouvelle Eve") and Vernoux ("Rien à faire, Reines d'un jour").

In 1999, he shares Nathalie Baye's fantasy in "Une liaison pornographique", the first film by Belgian Frédéric Fonteyne. At the same time, he regularly films in his native country where he is directed several times by Miguel Albaladejo and by Catalan Ventura Pons. His breakthrough came in 2000 with Dominik Moll's thriller, "Harry, a friend who wants the best for you": impressive in an unexpected role as a psychopath, the jovial-looking actor won the César for Best Actor in 2001.

Sergi Lopez then took part in projects as unusual as the medieval western "Meet the Dragon" or the wacky "Janis and John". The actor enjoys arousing sympathy and fear at times.

He was chosen by Stephen Frears to play the odious drug dealer Sneaky in "Dirty Pretty Things" (2003), then played a benevolent schoolteacher in "Les Mots bleus", a blind hedonist in "Peindre ou faire l'amour" (2005) or a terrifying Francoist captain in "Pan's Labyrinth" by Guillermo Del Toro, a performance that was very well-received at Cannes in 2006. Alone on stage in 2007 with "Non solum", a show he co-wrote, he was Alexandra Lamy's husband in 2009 "Ricky" and Kristin Scott Thomas' lover in "Partir".

Multiplying projects, he reunited with Manuel Poirier for "Le Café du pont" (2010), François Ozon for "Potiche" (id.) and Dominik Moll for "Le Moine" (2011). Also in 2011, he again worked in the settings of Franco's Spain with "Pain noir". He then goes in search of his wife on the roads of the emirate alongside Vanessa Paradis in the original "Dubai Flamingo" (2012), and becomes a prisoner in "Tango libre" (id.). In 2013, he witnesses the disastrous purchase of a horse by four childhood friends in "Turf".

Sergi has appeared extensively in the historical film "Michael Kohlhaas", the comedy "La Tendresse", the thriller "El niño" and the drama "Geronimo", in which he plays Céline Sallette's father. He meets the latter in "Les Rois du monde", where he gets out of prison and falls in love with the actress' character. He can also be seen in the strange "21 nights with Pattie" and the adventure film "En amont du fleuve" with Olivier Gourmet. He then plays the painter in "Orpheline" and the burglar in "Heureux comme Lazzaro".

Devoting himself to independent films with an impressive pace, the Spanish actor plays a supporting role in the prostitution drama "Filles de Joie", the comedy "Les Parfums", the Woody Allen "Rifkin's Festival", the comedy-drama "La Pièce rapportée" and the crazy thriller "Petite Fleur". He is also in the cast of the captivating "Pacifiction", led by Benoît Magimel at the height of his art, of the comedy "La Grande Magie" by Noémie Lvovsky and of the new film by Yolande Moreau "La Fiancée du poète".